FTX Exploiter Moves $36.8 Million in Ether Amid CEO’s Trial

During Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF) ongoing court trials as the ex-CEO of the defunct cryptocurrency exchange, the FTX exploiter’s wallet address transferred approximately $36.8 million worth of Ether in the last 24 hours.

The accounts of FTX and FTX.US were depleted of $600 million on November 11, 2022, hours after the cryptocurrency exchange filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

“FTX has been hacked. Chat is open. Please don’t go to the FTX site, as it might download Trojans. Note that some funds were retrieved.”

FTX’s general counsel at the time, Ryne Miller, informed traders of the malware-based hack Spot On Chain data verifies that after nearly 10 months of silence, the FTX exploiter began siphoning out the stolen funds, beginning with the transfer of 10,250 ETH worth $17.1 million to four addresses between September 30 and October 1.

The initial balance of the exploiter was 175,496 ETH ($294 million). As shown below, the current balance of their portfolio has decreased to $196,014 million.

Portfolio balance of FTX exploiter. Source: Spot On Chain

Since September 30th, 67,500 ETH have been transmitted from five of the fifteen wallet addresses associated with the FTX exploiter.

64,948 ETH ($108 million) were transmitted through the Thorchain router, and 52 ETH ($84,000) were transferred to the Railgun contract.

The remaining 2,500 ETH (approximately $4.19 million) were exchanged for Bitcoin (tBTC). The trial of SBF about the demise of FTX commenced on October 3.

FTX exploiter transferred out 10,250 ETH from address 0x3e9. Source: Spot On Chain

The business owner pleaded not guilty to all seven counts of fraud and money laundering. The Department of Justice and SBF’s defense team both addressed the jury on the second day of the trial.

While the DOJ continues to emphasize SBF’s alleged role in misleading investors on the platform, the defense argues that Bankman-Fried was a youthful entrepreneur who made business decisions that “didn’t work out.”