Nearly 10,000 tokens launched on BNB and Ethereum last year are suspected to have been created just to dump on investors, according to Chainalysis.
Crypto scammers feel the chill: Revenue drops 46% in 2022 — Chainalysis
Falling crypto prices caused crypto scam revenue to plummet in 2022, though two scam types managed to persist.
North Korea stole more crypto in 2022 than any other year: UN report
A report submitted to the United Nations found North Korean cyber attacks have become vastly more sophisticated and raked in more crypto than ever before.
Protocol Labs, Chainalysis and Bittrex add to crypto layoff season
Crypto execs suggested that the “extremely challenging” times forced them to cut jobs in order to “weather this extended” crypto winter.
Ransom refusals hit attackers where it hurts: 40% revenue drop in 2022 — Chainalysis
A number of industry pundits believe the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control’s threat to impose sanctions has victims thinking twice about paying up.
Sanctions couldn’t ‘pull the plug’ on Tornado Cash: Chainalysis
While it has become harder to access the crypto mixer today, for better or worse, decentralization means it’s near impossible to put an end to it.
Realized losses from FTX collapse peaked at $9B, far below earlier crises
Weekly-realized losses peaked at $20.5 billion when Terra Luna (LUNC) imploded and reached $33 billion when 3AC and Celsius collapsed, according to Chainalysis.
Dump Incoming? Rogue BTC-e Sends $165 Million In Bitcoin To Personal Wallets And Exchanges
After a year of near dormancy, Bitcoin funds of the rogue exchange BTC-e are on the move again. Chainalysis, an American blockchain analysis firm headquartered in New York City, is reporting that 10,000 BTC, worth about $165 million, have been transferred.
The destination of the transactions are personal wallets, exchange deposit addresses and other services. Remarkably, the transfer is the largest withdrawal since April 2018.
BTC-e was a crypto exchange that was founded in July 2011 and shut down in 2017 as a result of a joint investigation by the U.S. Secret Service and the FBI. According to the allegations, BTC-e was instrumental in laundering money for ransomware attacks.
As NewsBTC reported, security researchers estimated that BTC-e was responsible for 95% of all ransomware payments and their conversion into fiat currencies.
Russian citizen and co-founder of BTC-e, Alexander Vinnik, was also allegedly involved in the theft of 530,000 of the more than 800,000 Bitcoin stolen from Mt. Gox. After serving two years in prison in France, Vinnik was extradited to the U.S. in August.
As Chainalysis notes, BTC-e still held a significant amount of Bitcoin at the time of its shutdown in 2017. In April 2018, BTC-e moved more than 30,000 Bitcoin from its service wallet. About $50 million of that went to the now-sanctioned OTC counter Suex.
BTC-e Fraudster About To Dump Their Bitcoin?
Since then, the fraudulent exchange’s masterminds had been relatively quiet. Only in October 2021, BTC-e sent over 100 Bitcoin worth more than $6 million to personal wallets and eventually to several exchanges “that service Russia and other Eastern European countries,” according to Chainalysis.
Yesterday’s transaction appears to be the tip of the iceberg and a longer-planned move. The fraudsters of BTC-e began withdrawing cryptocurrencies as early as a month ago. On Oct. 26, both BTC-e and its successor exchange WEX sent small amounts of Bitcoin to Webmoney, a Russian electronic payment service.
Then, on November 11, BTC-e conducted a test by indirectly transferring 100 Bitcoin to an exchange. After seemingly being successful, BTC-e pulled of yesterdays big move.
Chainalysis concluded that approximately 9,950 Bitcoin are remaining in personal wallets of the fraudsters, “while the rest was moved through a series of intermediaries to four deposit addresses at two large exchanges. In the case of Exchange 1, depicted above, our analysis suggests a Russian exchange may have served as an intermediary to launder this BTC-e money”.
CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju confirmed that the BTC originate from the criminals linked to the 2014 Mt. Gox hack. “They sent 65 BTC to Hitbtc a few hours ago, so it’s not a gov auction or anything,” he said. Ju urged the exchange to suspend the account due to suspicious activity.
7-year-old 10,000 $BTC moved today.
No surprise, it's from criminals, like most of the old Bitcoins. It's the BTC-e exchange wallet related to the 2014 Mt. Gox hack.
They sent 65 BTC to @hitbtc a few hours ago, so it's not a gov auction or something.https://t.co/6LnCxFAJfX https://t.co/YdPrvJafxY pic.twitter.com/Sp2higUqbq
— Ki Young Ju (@ki_young_ju) November 24, 2022
Thus, in the short term, the BTC-e fraudsters do not appear to be a threat, as they are once again only dumping smaller amounts of BTC. The Bitcoin price, meanwhile, is struggling with the crucial resistance at $16,000 USD.
10,000 BTC moves off crypto wallet linked to Mt. Gox hack
The crypto was dormant in the account for over seven years and with the move, a majority found its way to personal wallets.
Crypto has survived worse than the fall of FTX: Chainalysis
According to Chainalysis, the downfall of FTX is likely to have a relatively smaller effect on the crypto ecosystem than the demise of Mt. Gox.
FTX names Kroll as claims agent, to update users on bankruptcy developments
Claims and noticing agents such as Kroll are often assigned to bankruptcy cases where the number of creditors exceeds a thousand.
Terrorists are funding their horrible deeds with crypto: UN officials
Cash and hawala remain the “predominant methods of terror financing,” according to a UN official, however, “advanced” terror organizations are turning to cryptocurrencies.
Remittances drive ‘uneven, but swift’ crypto adoption in Latin America
The Latin American region now makes up for a 9.1% share of the global crypto value received in 2022 with remittances and high inflation the highest drivers of adoption.
Barely halfway and October’s the ‘biggest month’ in crypto hacks: Chainalysis
While 2021 was the biggest year on record for crypto hacks, 2022 could “likely” beat the record “at this rate” according to Chainalysis.
Russian stablecoin usage surged after Ukraine invasion: Report
According to Chainalysis data, Russia’s stablecoin usage has increased since the onset of the war, due partly to ordinary Russian citizens seeking to protect their assets.
Taliban had a ‘massive chilling effect’ on Afghan crypto market: Report
Crypto value received in Afghanistan surged in the wake of the Taliban seizing power in August 2021, but crypto markets have flat lined under the regime.
Tornado Cash left a void, time will tell what fills it — Chainalysis chief scientist
There’s a hole to be filled where Tornado Cash once was, and “junior mixers” are vying for position in the wake of the mixers sanction and ban by the U.S. Treasury.
NFTs ‘biggest on-ramp’ to crypto in Central, Southern Asia and Oceania — report
NFT-related websites accounted for the largest share of crypto-related web traffic in most CSAO countries over the last 12 months, according to Chainalysis.
Law enforcement recovers $30 million from Ronin Bridge hack with the help of Chainalysis
Chainalysis Crypto Incident Response team helped law enforcement trace stolen funds to cash out points and for their subsequent freeze.
Ether price could ‘decouple’ from other crypto post Merge — Chainalysis
Chainalysis suggests ETH could decouple from other cryptocurrencies post Merge as its staking rewards could make it similar to bonds or commodities.