Checking by today’s value, the whole funds stolen from Bitfinex in 2016 has risen to be above $2.3 billion including the recent Bitcoin hack, and the wrongdoers are moving it slowly.
In 2016, Bitfinex lost close to $100 million worth of BTC. Nobody could identify the person or persons behind it. But yesterday, the hackers moved the funds from 14 idle wallets.
The total number of BTC is 5045.48, and the value today for those coins is up to $98.3 million. These coins have remained in idle wallets since 2016, and no one seemed interested in using them until recently.
The 2016 hack on the exchange was due to a problem with multi-signature wallets on the platform. The movement yesterday is not the first move on the stolen funds. The hackers moved some of the coins in 2016. Also, in August, they moved $5.6 million coins from the hack.
Bitcoin shifted suddenly
When bitcoin is moved from idle wallets, it is called “Awakening”. This is a situation where people suddenly move bitcoin that no one is using to other wallets.
The coins are usually labeled “Satoshi-era,” which means that those idle bitcoins were mined in the era of the founder. In recent times, it seems that more bitcoin is moving away from idle wallets.
But those types of BTC moved yesterday were not those in the founder’s era but the ones which hackers stole from Bitfinex exchange. The exchange has not recovered the stolen crypto for four years now.
According to reports, the exchange even offered to pay a reward of $400 million to anyone who can help them contact the hackers. It is a sad vent indeed, and seeing the movement of the funds will reopen the pains of the losses on the Bitfinex exchange.