Following detection by crypto detective Sergey Mendeleev, a wallet address associated with the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e sent its largest transaction since August 2017 on Wednesday, delivering a total of 10,000 BTC (US$167 million) to two unidentified wallets.
While the other wallet has continued to hold onto the remaining money, one of the wallets that received 3,500 BTC sent 300 BTC onto another wallet, which was then divided even further into numerous further wallets.
The FBI shut down BTC-e in 2017 for alleged money laundering after it handled an estimated US$9 billion between its establishment in 2011 and that point.
The US Department of Justice detained Alexander Vinnik, the alleged operator of BTC-e, in Greece in 2017 on suspicion that he helped launder money obtained through the infamous Mt. Gox Co. Ltd. hack.
Vinnik was extradited to the United States in 2020 after being given a five-year prison sentence in France for money laundering.
Mt. Gox was once the biggest Bitcoin exchange in the world, accounting for over 70% of all Bitcoin trades in 2014 before it shut down due to a hack that resulted in the theft of 850,000 Bitcoin, which at the time was worth about US$500 million.
Mt. Gox was previously the biggest Bitcoin exchange in the world, accounting for over 70% of all Bitcoin trades in 2014 before it shut down due to a breach that resulted in the theft of 850,000 Bitcoin, which at the time was worth over US$500 million.
Nobuaki Kobayashi, the company’s Rehabilitation Trustee, informed creditors in July that customers and creditors would receive 137,000 Bitcoin, which at the time was worth approximately US$2.8 billion, raising fears that the price of Bitcoin would decline.
