Onchain investigators discover Alameda-related funds exchanged for ETH, USDT, BTC by a mysterious entity

On December 27, 2022, a number of onchain researchers noticed that funds linked to Alameda Research and FTX moved and were exchanged for other tokens. Reports show that the hacker known as ” FTX Accounts Drainer “traded large amounts of ERC20 tokens for digital assets like tether, ethereum and bitcoin.

Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research-linked funds were traded for Ethereum, Tether and Bitcoin.

It appears that whoever controls the funds that were once linked to Alameda and FTX is starting to move a large handful of ERC20 tokens. According to researcher OXT onchain Ergo On Twitter, addresses linked to Alameda have started trading ERC20 for ERC20. ETH and USDT. “Alameda ETH are rummaging through the couch for change and trading bits of ERC20 for ETH. ETH/USDT,“Ergo tweeted. “ETH and USDT and then routed through instant exchanges. This raises alarm bells“, added the onchain researcher.

Alameda ETH addresses are digging around in the sofa for spare change and swapping bits ERC20s for ETH/USDT.

ETH and USDT then funneled through instant exchangers.

Rings some major alarm bells…https://t.co/GRVtChDL9rhttps://t.co/LJBi7cuFZLhttps://t.co/nxcXWgm5VO pic.twitter.com/AqcgxVRoMr

— 🏴∴Ergo∴🏴 (@ErgoBTC) December 28, 2022

In response to Ergo’s tweet, the onchain researcher Zachxbt responded and said: “the funds are exchanged for [bitcoin]”, while sharing four BTC addresses (1, 2, 3, 4). These four addresses received about 11.9 bitcoins worth nearly $199,000 at today’s rate. BTC exchange rate. In the thread posted by Ergo, someone asked whether the movement of funds probably came from the liquidators. Zachxbt dismissed this idea when he… tweeted: “I don’t think they would use Fixedfloat or Changenow.“

The funds are being swapped for BTC

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bc1qk4mnz4qkh9vfcm95z6ww9czhzjsknjr8s457mg
bc1qwx3herf245w6k9ljjfgdsngtvjsp3qs6znp8dd
bc1q7p22k0ly0pmy04ermzu76uyylveehu9cusrcnp pic.twitter.com/ueYLjQOalZ

– ZachXBT (@zachxbt) December 28, 2022

The story of Nansen Martin Lee also confirmed that the funds were sent to Fixedfloat or Changenow. “Lots of activity on Alameda portfolios in the last 6-7 hours,” said Lee said. “Various tokens on ETH being consolidated in [deux] major portfolios. Switched to ETH/USDT (USDC to USDT too). USDT exchanged them for ETH. Sent to several Fixedfloat and Changenow portfolios“. Lee added:

The transactions look strange to me. Consolidation makes sense, but after consolidation, the funds are sent to new portfolios before being sent to Changenow and Fixedfloat.

1/ Lots of activity going on among Alameda wallets in the past 6-7 hours

Various tokens on ETH being consolidated into 2 main wallets

Swapped to ETH/USDT (USDC to USDT too)

USDT thn swapped to ETH

Sent to multiple wallets and thn to FixedFloat/Changenow

Source: @nansen_ai pic.twitter.com/NfTe9CoY9K

— Martin Lee | Nansen 🧭 (@themlpx) December 28, 2022

In addition to the recent moves, FTX Account Sponsor also controls the ethereum address “0x97f.“The portfolio holds approximately $200 million in ERC20 tokens and $41 million in FTT tokens. This is a substantial amount of crypto assets that were confiscated by an unknown entity on the same day FTX filed for bankruptcy protection.

In addition, days before the bankruptcy filing, on November 6, 2022, FTX’s bitcoin reserves of 20,176.84 were confiscated. The BTCs were siphoned from the wallet in less than 24 hours. The whereabouts of the more than 20,000 bitcoins worth $334.24 million today remains a mystery. A number of speculators have questioned whether hackers or even law enforcement are now in control of these funds, while many believe the owner is simply a thief.