Vladislav Sopov
360 bitcoins (BTC) or over $6 million equivalent are laundered via ChipMixer
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- Bitcoins (BTC) from FTX are on the rise, says ZachXBT
- US government undercover operation?
Reputable anonymous cryptocurrency analyst ZachXBT has been tracking the path of bitcoins (BTC) stolen from the now-defunct exchange FTX following its collapse. What is special about the mixing service used by the FTX hacker?
Bitcoins (BTC) from FTX are on the rise, says ZachXBT
In a recent tweet, analyst ZachXBT mentioned that the first batch of bitcoins — 360 BTC — will be moved from the FTX hack to ChipMixer, a mainstream bitcoin (BTC) mixer, for washing.
Update: FTX attacker started using ChipMixer to launder the funds (~360 BTC so far) https://t.co/xuiCaajnh8 https://t.co/qsSJs8d8OV
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) November 25, 2022
Such services are used to disguise ownership of cryptocurrencies. Typically, hackers use them to launder stolen funds and make it impossible for AML services to track them.
A large portion of the stolen Bitcoins (BTC) were moved via the Ren Protocol (REN). In a report on the Chainabuse platform, ZachXBT shared the details of dozens of addresses on Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL) and Polygon Network (MATIC) used by the FTX hacker.
As previously reported by U.Today, shortly after the exchange’s bankruptcy, hackers siphoned off $477 million equivalent from FTX and its US arm.
In a “peel-chain” transaction pattern, Ethereums (ETH) are distributed to different addresses by FTX, cybersecurity analysts at CertiK found.
US government undercover operation?
Another prominent analyst @FatManTerra shared his theory about the ChipMixer service. He claims it could be operated by US government agencies to crack Bitcoin (BTC) privacy and de-anonymize transfers.
🧵 Today I’m sharing my long-standing theory behind a US government covert operation aimed at partially cracking Bitcoin’s privacy and de-anonymizing transactions. I believe that the popular Bitcoin mixer ChipMixer is actually a US government honeypot. Here’s why.
— FatMan (@FatManTerra) November 23, 2022
The analyst stressed that despite the crackdown on Tornado Cash, ChipMixer is still openly operating. Running such a centralized service is highly illegal. Meanwhile, its owners, whoever they may be, have a huge amount of information about the transactions.
At press time, one of MetaMask Phishing Detection’s most popular ChipMixer domains is flagged as CryptoScamDB’s site. The service restricts access to ChipMixer as it can compromise visitor security.
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