10,000 BTC are removed from the crypto wallet linked to Mt. Gox's hack

Key points: 

• A crypto wallet from defunct cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e just moved 10,000 Bitcoins. 
• BTC-e was shut down by the FBI in 2017 after being accused of involvement in money laundering, including cryptocurrencies traded during the Mt. Gox exchange hack.
• A 2017 report by WizSecurity said BTC-e was directly involved in stealing Bitcoin and user funds from Mt. Gox.
• According to Chainalysis, BTC-e was still holding a “substantial amount of Bitcoin” at the time of the shutdown, having withdrawn more than 30,000 Bitcoin from its service wallet in April 2018.

On Nov. 23, a crypto wallet from defunct cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e just moved 10,000 Bitcoins, now worth more than $165 million, to various exchanges, personal wallets, and other sources.

A Chainalysis report on Nov. 23 showed that while the payout was BTC-e’s largest since April 2018, BTC-e and WEX - an exchange considered to be BTC-e’s successor - both sent a small amount of BTC to Russian electronic payment service Webmoney on October 26, then make a test payment on November 11 and transfer another 100 BTC on November 21.

Of the total amount sent, 9,950 BTC are believed to still be in individual wallets, while the remainder was transferred through intermediaries and ended up in four deposit addresses on two major exchanges.

Ki Young Ju, co-founder, and CEO of blockchain analytics firm Cryptoquant, also confirmed the findings, noting that 0.6% of funds were sent to exchanges, likely representing sell-side liquidity.

In a tweet on Nov. 24, Young Ju shared an image of the transfer, emphasizing that the BTC had been held in the wallet for over seven years.

Young Ju also mentioned that 65 BTC had been transferred to the cryptocurrency exchange HitBTC and urged them to suspend the account due to suspicious activity.

Mt. Gox, a Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange, was once responsible for more than 70% of all Bitcoin transactions. In 2014, the exchange was hacked and thousands of Bitcoins were stolen, and the exchange declared bankruptcy shortly thereafter.

BTC-e, whose servers are located in the United States, was shut down by the FBI in 2017 after being accused of involvement in money laundering, including cryptocurrencies traded during the Mt. Gox exchange hack.

According to Chainalysis, BTC-e was still holding a “substantial amount of Bitcoin” at the time of the shutdown, having withdrawn more than 30,000 Bitcoin from its service wallet in April 2018.

While the owner of BTC-e has attempted to remain anonymous, Alexander Vinnik is believed to be the main operator and has thus been embroiled in legal battles for the past five years.

A 2017 report by WizSecurity said BTC-e and Vinnik were directly involved in stealing Bitcoin and user funds from Mt. Gox, which was forced to suspend trading and shut down its website after the losses.