The Bitcoins that were stolen from the Bitfinex hack as of 2016 are currently in motion. The Bitcoin address that holds the cryptocurrencies have been under close surveillance from the period of the hack till now. 

There are wild guesses that the coins are being transferred to a different address in anticipation of liquidation or basically to send some quiver through the industry. 

It is essential to refer to the incident of which Bitfinex had released a press statement after it found out that about 119,796 worth of bitcoins had been stolen, with a count of over 2000 transactions in 2016. The report shows that as of the day of the incident, there was a security breach noticed, which required that they stopped all transactions on Bitfinex as well as put a stop to all deposits and withdrawals of digital tokens from Bitfinex. 

They investigated the breach with all precision to find out what happened, and it was inevitable that some customers’ bitcoins had been stolen. They had to go back to the books to confirm the users that the breach affected. 

Where Could The Stolen Bitcoins Be Distributed? 

At the current market price, 119,796 Bitcoins have a worth of about $4.5 billion. When the hack occurred, Bitcoins had an estimated value of $65 million. 

The hackers had taken advantage of a vulnerability that gave them the access to unravel Bitfinex’s key. Unlike MtGOX, which had about 500,000 bitcoins stolen, Bitfinex has continued to stay in operation. 

Elliptic has been in charge of surveying and tracking down the Bitcoins that were stolen. Only about 4% of the coins that were stolen got laundered as of May 2021. Elliptic observed that Bitcoins were channeled into three categories of the actor: privacy wallets (12%), darknet market (84%), and the exchanges (4%). 

Due to the cash-out services rendered on the Hydra platform, cybercriminals have patronized it in numbers. In Hydra, the most renowned cash-out method is physical money given out at an already arranged location. Hydra possesses its personalized couriers (the majority of which Elliptic discovered to be females) that drop off any form of item to a non-disclosed site. 

As of 2017, after the Alphabay caved in, Hydra became the largest marketplace on the darknet. Bitfinex in 2020 gave a bounty of about $400 million for the return of the bitcoins that were stolen. 

It offered a reward to whoever was able to link them with the hackers who took on an unapproved transfer from the exchange of about 120,000 bitcoins in August 2016. In the same way, they also offered a reward to the fraudsters themselves to return the stolen assets. 

A Trial At Laundering?

The stolen coins being held by the tracked BTC address transferred 94,643 bitcoins(estimated $3.6 billion) in the early hours of today. The address so far has carried out about 26 transactions via the Bitcoin blockchain. So far, it has received a sum of 94,643.29856151 BTC ($3,636,364,942.24) and has transferred a sum of 0.00000000 BTC ($0.00). Currently, the address is worth 94,643.29856151 BTC ($3,636,364,942.24). 

It is almost impossible to launder such an amount in a relatively short time, and there are guesses that this whole operation is aimed at weakening BTC USD from which the hackers have the opportunity of making profits and at the same time maintaining short stances before movement of the bitcoins. 

The fear of possible liquidation is the primary reason why the mobilization of the Bitnex stolen coins poses a threat to BTC. This is because a liquidation in massive quantities of Bitcoin would reduce the value of BTC USD in the available exchanges. 

Irrespective of the fact that it may not be accomplished in a short period, the market is still prone to reaction. BTCUSD declined from its daily highs of $39,000( estimate) to under $38,000.