On November 23, a crypto wallet belonging to the defunct crypto exchange BTC-e sent 10,000 Bitcoin, which is now valued at over $165 million, to multiple exchanges, personal wallets, and other sources.
According to a Chainalysis report published on November 23, while this is the largest withdrawal made by BTC-e since April 2018, BTC-e and WEX, both sent small amounts of Bitcoin to Russian electronic payments service Webmoney on Oct. 26 before making a test payment on Nov. 11, then transferring out a further 100 BTC on Nov. 21.
The cryptocurrency had been inactive in the account for almost seven years, and with the transfer, the majority of it found its way to personal wallets.
9,950 BTC of the total supplied amount is believed to still be in individual wallets, with the remaining Bitcoin being transferred through middlemen and ending up at four deposit addresses on two significant exchanges.
Ki Young Ju, co-founder, and CEO of blockchain analytics firm Cryptoquant, confirmed the results, stating that 0.6% of the money was routed to exchanges and may represent sell-side liquidity.
Young Ju released photographs of the transfer in a tweet on November 24th, stressing that the Bitcoin had been in the wallet for over seven years.
Young Ju further stated that 65 BTC had been moved to the cryptocurrency exchange HitBTC and requested that the account be suspended due to suspicious activities.
About Mt.Gox
Mt. Gox was a cryptocurrency exchange situated in Tokyo that once accounted for more than 70% of Bitcoin transactions. The exchange was hacked in 2014, and thousands of Bitcoin were taken; shortly after, the exchange declared bankruptcy.
BTC-e, which had servers in the United States, had its website shut down and cash confiscated by the FBI in 2017 following charges that it was involved in money laundering, including crypto stolen from the Mt. Gox exchange attack.
According to Chainalysis, BTC-e still retained “a large amount of Bitcoin” at the time of its suspension, and in April 2018 moved over 30,000 BTC out of its service wallet.
While the owners of BTC-e attempted to stay unknown, it is believed that Alexander Vinnik is the principal operator and has been entangled in court fights for the previous five years as a result.
According to a WizSecurity investigation published in 2017, BTC-e and Vinnik were directly implicated in the theft of Mt. Gox Bitcoin and user funds, with the latter forced to cease trading and close its website as a result of the losses.
