FTX Funds On The Move As Thief Converts Thousands Of ETH Into Bitcoin

Chainalysis, a company that conducts blockchain analyses, claims that money taken from the FTX crypto exchange is currently being converted from ETH into Bitcoin.

iexclusivenews reports that in order to encourage exchanges to freeze these coins in case the thief tries to exchange them for fiat or further obscure the assets, Chainalysis encouraged exchanges to do so on Twitter on November 20.

This online news outlet understands that in the midst of the contentious demise and bankruptcy of FTX, word spread that 228,523 ETH had been stolen by an unidentified perpetrator.

🚨1/ Funds stolen from FTX are on the move and exchanges should be on high alert to freeze them if the hacker attempts to cash out

— Chainalysis (@chainalysis) November 20, 2022

The owner of these coins, which at the time of publication were worth a staggering $268,057,479 USD, is currently one of the biggest ETH holders in the entire world.

Though initial reports suggested that all of the funds in question were in the custody of Bahamas securities regulators, Chainalysis refuted this theory, stating:

Update: FTX Hacker is now actively dumping ETH on-chain

He has dumped about $15 million ETH in the past 30 minutes and just prepped a fresh batch of $12 million

Still has $270m ETH in main wallet

He's selling ETH to wBTC to renBTC through aggregators like 1inch https://t.co/mEd8UHFCO0

— kamikaz ΞTH 🦇🔊 (@kamikaz_ETH) November 20, 2022

“Reports that the funds stolen from FTX were actually sent to the Securities Commission of The Bahamas are incorrect. Some funds were stolen, and other funds were sent to the regulators.”

What You Should Know 

Approximately 31,000 ETH had been converted into wrapped BTC at the time of publication. The coins were then transferred crosschain to a Bitcoin mainnet wallet via the Ren Protocol, for a total of 2444.55 BTC.

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It’s been a difficult few weeks for those impacted by the demise of FTX and its affiliated companies.

A press release issued earlier today stated that FTX debtors are in talks with financial services firm Perella Weinberg Partners about various reorganization attempts. However, the engagement is subject to bankruptcy court approval.

LIVE: FTX Drainer (Aka Bahamas Gov?) Liquidating ETH

Addy #1 – 0x59
Addy #2 – 0x86

Flow So Far
– Move $ETH from #1 to #2
– Swap $ETH for $renBTC
– Send it to NULL Addy

Update
– Sold 31k $ETH for 2.2k $renBTC
– Sending all $renBTC to NULL Address (ETH Genesis Address)

1/n pic.twitter.com/WfkXGsUDRq

— Garlam (@GarlamWON) November 20, 2022

Meanwhile, iexclusivenews Nigeria reports that the company’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, is said to be “under supervision” in the Bahamas, though some fear he will try to flee to Dubai if given the chance.

Given that the UAE and the US have an agreement on evidence sharing, judicial cooperation, and assistance in criminal investigations and prosecutions, it is unclear how this situation will ultimately play out.