Approximately 5,000 ETH, worth over $8.2 million, have been moved from a wallet address linked to the FTX hacker. This development marks the first time that assets have been transferred from the hacker’s wallet following the exploit about a year ago.
FTX Hacker Moves 5,000 ETH, Spot On Chain Reveals
The now-defunct FTX exchange, which has been hailed as one of the largest crypto heists ever, suffered a loss of more than $600 million due to a hack in November 2022, just hours after filing for bankruptcy.
According to the on-chain analytics platform Spot on chainthe FTX operator has now transferred 5,000 ETH in two transactions, moving 2,500 ETH to two separate wallets with a two-hour gap between both transactions.
🚨🚨 FTX Exploiter 0x3e957 just moved 2500 $ETH ($4.2 million) to new addresses
This is the first time the address has been active since the hack ten months ago. The address still contains 12.5K $ETH
Follow the following actions via our platform
https://t.co/7LnmryLvhL pic.twitter.com/yl2NnMwaqW
— Spot On Chain (@spotonchain) September 30, 2023
Spot on Chain further revealed that after the first transaction, the hacker moved 700 ETH via the Thorchain Router and 1,200 ETH via the DeFi wallet Railgun, both crypto projects praised for their privacy-focused features.
Aside from the origins of these transferred assets, the FTX operator’s moves have attracted a lot of attention due to a major development in the crypto space, with many enthusiasts and analysts now speculating on a possible market sell-off.
Could the FTX Hacker be planning a sell-off as the launch of the Ether Futures ETF approaches?
Reports increased this week that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was looking to release some Ether futures ETH for launch next week, ahead of a possible government shutdown.
These reports gained momentum in less than a day when the VanEck Investment firm announced plans to soon launch an Ether futures ETH called the VanEck Ethereum Strategy ETF.
However, Valkyrie Investments, which had been tipped as a frontrunner for SEC approval, ultimately won the race and secured the commission’s green light to launch the first-ever Ether futures ETF in the US.
After the official launch of an Ether futures ETF, there is likely to be a huge positive impact on ETH price movement. In the last two days alone of similar positive news surrounding this investment fund, the second largest cryptocurrency already rose 4%, based on data from CoinMarketCap.
Now, the recent token transfers by the FTX hacker are usually associated with an upcoming sale promotion. So, there is a possibility that this bad actor could be planning to profit from the potential ETH price increase, which could be generated by the launch of ETH futures ETF.
Such selling actions are a common practice among crypto whales and are known to cause a bearish trend, which can be dangerous for small traders.
At the time of writing, ETH is trading at $1,677, with a gain of 5.77% on the last day. Meanwhile, the token’s daily trading volume has fallen by 44.35% and is valued at $3.8 billion.
ETH trading at $1,675.57 on the hourly chart | Source: ETHUSDT chart on Tradingview.com
Featured image of Money, chart from Tradingview