New evidence surfaces about a wallet that transferred 10,000 BTC in a mysterious way

According to a report from Chainalysis, 10,000 BTC were transferred from a crypto-currency wallet that has not been used since 2014. However, questions are now being asked about the move, and a possible link it could have to the infamous Mt. Gox Hack from seven years ago.

Over the past seven years, the assets were reportedly left dormant in a crypto wallet owned by the failed crypto exchange BTC-e. However, on Wednesday, the assets somehow found their way into various personal wallets and exchanges. At the time of publication, the 10,000 BTC is equivalent to about $167 million.

The transfer appears to have a “suspicious“. According to Chainalysis, BTC-e and WEX – its successor exchange – did some sort of preparation before the transfer. According to the report, the duo sent small amounts of bitcoins to Russian online payment service Webmoney over the past month. They then made an even larger transfer of 100 BTC, two days before this large withdrawal.

Reliving the Mt. Gox hack, its connection to the recently transferred 10,000 BTC and BTC-e

When the Tokyo-based crypto-currency exchange Mt. Gox, based in Tokyo, was hacked in 2014, hackers took thousands of bitcoins. This eventually led the exchange to file for bankruptcy. However, three years later, BTC-e, whose servers were based in the United States, had its website shut down and its funds frozen by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This was because the company was accused of playing a role in the notorious 2014 hack. At the time, other money laundering allegations were also made against it.

When BTC-e was shut down, Chainalysis believes it still had a fairly large amount of bitcoins. In April 2018, BTC-e reportedly transferred more than 30,000 BTC out of its service wallet. And those 10,000 bitcoins may well be the last of the whole bunch.

Despite the best efforts of BTC-e’s owners to remain anonymous, Alexander Vinnik, the alleged operator of BTC-e, has been picked up by authorities. And for most of the past five years, the Russian national has been embroiled in one legal battle or another.