On Dec. 27, 2022, a number of onchain researchers noticed that funds connected to Alameda Research and FTX have moved and have been swapped for other tokens. Reports show the hacker known as the ‘FTX Accounts Drainer,’ traded large sums of ERC20 tokens for digital assets like tether, ethereum, and bitcoin.
Funds Tied to Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research Traded for Ethereum, Tether, and Bitcoin
It seems whoever controls the funds that once were connected to Alameda and FTX is starting to move a large handful of ERC20 tokens. According to the OXT onchain researcher Ergo, on Twitter, Alameda-linked addresses started to swap ERC20s for ETH and USDT. “Alameda ETH addresses are digging around in the sofa for spare change and swapping bits ERC20s for ETH/USDT,” Ergo tweeted. “ETH and USDT then funneled through instant exchangers. Rings some major alarm bells,” the onchain researcher added.
In response to Ergo’s tweet, the onchain sleuth Zachxbt replied and said: “the funds are being swapped for [bitcoin],” while sharing four different BTC addresses (1, 2, 3, 4). All four of those addresses were sent roughly 11.9 bitcoin worth close to $199K using today’s BTC exchange rates. In the thread published by Ergo, someone asked if the fund movements likely derived from the liquidators. Zachxbt dismissed the idea when he tweeted: “don’t think they would use Fixedfloat or Changenow.”
Ergo also detailed that funds were swept into this ethereum wallet here.
Nansen’s Martin Lee also confirmed that the funds were sent to Fixedfloat or Changenow. “Lots of activity going on among Alameda wallets in the past 6-7 hours,” Lee said. “Various tokens on ETH being consolidated into [two] main wallets. Swapped to ETH/USDT (USDC to USDT too). USDT [then] swapped to ETH. Sent to multiple wallets and [then] to Fixedfloat [and] Changenow.” Lee further added:
Transactions seem odd to me. Consolidation makes sense but after it’s being consolidated the funds get sent to fresh wallets before it gets sent to Changenow [and] Fixedfloat.
In addition to the recent movements, the FTX Accounts Drainer also controls the ethereum (ETH) address “0x97f.” The wallet holds around $200 million in ERC20 tokens and $41 million worth of FTT tokens. There’s a substantial sum of crypto assets that were confiscated by an unknown entity the same day FTX filed for bankruptcy protection.
Furthermore, just days before the bankruptcy filing, on Nov. 6, 2022, FTX’s bitcoin reserves which equated to 20,176.84 BTC, were siphoned from the wallet in less than 24 hours. The whereabouts of the more than 20,000 bitcoin worth $334.24 million today is still a mystery. A number of speculators have wondered if white hat hackers or even law enforcement now have control over these funds, while many speculate the owner is simply a thief.