A crypto wallet belonging to the shutdown crypto exchange BTC-e has just moved 10,000 Bitcoin worth over $165 million to various exchanges, personal wallets, and other sources on Nov. 23. The crypto was inactive in the account for over seven years and with the move, a majority found its way to personal wallets.
A Nov. 23 Chainalysis report suggested while this extraction is the major made by BTC-e since April 2018, BTC-e and WEX both sent small amounts of BTC to Russian electronic payments service Webmoney on Oct. 26 before making a test payment on Nov. 11, then transferred out a further 100 BTC on Nov. 21.
Of the total amount sent, 9,950 BTC is thought to still be located in personal wallets, while the rest was moved through intermediaries before ending up at four deposit addresses in two large exchanges.
Ki Young Ju, Blockchain analytics firm Cryptoquant co-founder and CEO, also confirmed the findings noting 0.6% of the funds were sent to exchanges and may represent sell-side liquidity.
In a Nov. 24 tweet, Young Ju shared images of the transfer highlighting the BTC had been in the wallet for over seven years.
Young Ju also mentioned that 65 BTC had been transferred to the crypto exchange HitBTC and called on them to suspend the account for doubtful activity.
Mt. Gox was a Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange that once accounted for more than 70% of Bitcoin transactions. In 2014, the exchange was hacked with thousands of Bitcoin stolen, the exchange filed for insolvency shortly after.
BTC-e, which had its servers located in the United States, had its website shut down and funds detained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2017 after allegations that it was involved in money laundering, including crypto stolen during the Mt. Gox exchange hack.
Chainalysis reported, at the time of its shutdown BTC-e still held “a substantial amount of Bitcoin,” and in April 2018 moved over 30,000 BTC out of its service wallet.
Alexander Vinnik is thought to be the main operator and has been involved in legal battles for the last five years as a result. BTC-e and Vinnik were directly involved in the theft of Mt. Gox Bitcoin and user funds, with the latter being forced to suspend trading and close its website after the losses according to a WizSecurity report released in 2017.
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