Topic: Remember Bitfinex Exchange Hack of 2016 ? The stolen bitcoins are moving! (Read 325 times)

I cross-checked various sources and it appears that when they moved those coins ^{[on Feb 1]}, they were still on the loose...

Heather "tweeted" on Feb, 6 ^{[that would've not been the case if she had already been taken into custody]}.

The funds (BTC) that was moved by the hacker was laundered using tornado cash (a protocol in eth for private transactions) so it would be a lot harder to trace. One more thing to keep in mind is that DeFi platforms can be hacked as well resulting in users loss of funds. There's been a lot of this already - let's just pray we don't become victim of such experience because most exchanges don't compensate users.

I think the saddest part of this whole hacking story is that transactions can easily be traced and movements of Bitcoin from one wallet to another can be ascertained but there is nothing so far that can be done to get back the assets stolen. And that can mean a very big encouragement to other hackers to do everything possible and to even invest in more sophisticated tools and means to become successful in wreaking havoc in many big centralized exchanges...because the money is really in there...millions of money. This is one big reason why DEXs are getting more popular though nothing is really totally safe as long as we have extremely talented and creative hackers around.

If I were the exchange I will accept the deposit and then surprise the hacker by rejecting his withdrawal. I will also not allow trades from this address and for the main event I will ask him to do a KYC but of course he is not dumb enough to do it.

Using different ID's for KYC will make the attempt unsuccessful. I think news like this could still create an impact to the market because some will get scared. Anyway i found this news interesting because of how good or planned this hacker as it took them almost 6 years before they decided to make a move. They know that they stole an incredible amount of BTC and the world is watching the next step there going to make.

Well according to news on Coindesk two individuals were arrested who conspired to hack the exchange, they are married couples (quite surprising), they are expected to "appear in court at 3:00 p.m. ET in New York, according to a U.S. Department of Justice"
Am shocked this two are not aware the wallets are under strict monitoring by the security agents, after hiding for a few years, now they will face the full weight of the law.

Where ever fund moving this wallet have detected by all exchange market and when this fund arriving on exchange account for depositing will get lock or account get trouble for withdrawing later. Still fund hacked from bitfinex not moving to other exchange just hold on hard ware wallet, the hacker not really brave moving his fund have announcement by Bitfinex team will banned and looking this hacker with bounty amount $400k. I think after last weeks with this issues not any impact with bitcoin and altcoin price keep stable pump because they can't move fund from wallet to exchange account for selling.

seems the coin movements are related to authorities finding the thieves and seizing the coins

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60310783

Stolen Bitcoin worth more than $5bn (£3.7bn) has been seized by the US Department of Justice - the largest ever confiscation of its kind.

Officials also arrested and charged two people on Tuesday with attempting to launder the money, which amounts to nearly 120,000 Bitcoin.

The funds, stolen by a hacker who breached a cryptocurrency exchange in 2016, were valued at about $71m.

But, with the rise in Bitcoin's value, it is now valued at more than $5bn.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite Jr said the seizure was proof the government "will not allow cryptocurrency to be a safe haven for money laundering or a zone of lawlessness within our financial system".

The money originates from the 2016 hack of a crypto exchange known as Bitfinex.

According to Justice Department officials, a hacker breached the platform, made more than 2,000 unauthorised transactions and then funnelled the money into a digital wallet allegedly run by Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, of New York.

A criminal complaint alleges Lichtenstein and his wife, Heather Morgan, 31, laundered about 25,000 of the stolen Bitcoin through various accounts over the past five years and used various methods to cover their tracks, from fake identities to converting their Bitcoin into other digital currencies.

Investigators from Washington DC, New York, Chicago and Ansbach, Germany collaborated on the lengthy probe.

In a statement, Bitfinex said it had cooperated with the inquiry and was "pleased" the stolen funds had been recovered.

Lichtenstein and Morgan will appear before a federal judge later on Tuesday, on counts of conspiracy to defraud the US and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

If found guilty, they could each serve up to 25 years in prison.

The asset seizure comes four months after the launch of a National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team at the Justice Department.

In what is believed to be its previous largest financial seizure, the team seized some $2.3m in cryptocurrency last year, recovering the ransom paid by the Colonial Pipeline company to end a crippling cyberattack.

You don't even need to join groups, mixers/tumblers are available to use today — and some(like ChipMixer) even has an onion address, for those who value their privacy. The question is just that if the anonymity can be broken or not.

Relevant thread: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/breaking-mixing-services-5117328

and at the same time the person who stole might also try and encash illegally which does mean that the price might went down because that's a really high amount.

He still has options of taking the money out little by little with ATM withdrawals,

and buying things with crypto.

People who steal things or get them through bad ways will never really enjoy the "fruits" of their labor. Karma has a funny way of striking back and biting their a**, so the joke is on them, time will tell.

I think the saddest part of this whole hacking story is that transactions can easily be traced and movements of Bitcoin from one wallet to another can be ascertained but there is nothing so far that can be done to get back the assets stolen. And that can mean a very big encouragement to other hackers to do everything possible and to even invest in more sophisticated tools and means to become successful in wreaking havoc in many big centralized exchanges...because the money is really in there...millions of money. This is one big reason why DEXs are getting more popular though nothing is really totally safe as long as we have extremely talented and creative hackers around.

This is well-known within the crypto forum and people that follow the news. However, there is some Bitcoin tumbler group where people exchange dirty coins for clean coins.