According to on-chain detective ZachXBT, a suspicious transaction was recorded on the Bitcoin network on August 19, 2024, involving the movement of 4,064 BTC, worth $238 million.
The transaction raised red flags because, after transferring the massive amount of Bitcoin to a new wallet, the user split the BTC into smaller amounts and sent them to multiple addresses without a clear reason. This behavior has led to concerns that users might be trying to move or hide their assets.
Additionally, the original whale wallet is linked to Genesis Trading, a lending firm that went bankrupt in early 2023 due to its involvement with the collapse of the FTX exchange. Specifically, this wallet received $37.7 million in bankruptcy compensation from Genesis in early August and $127.6 million worth of Bitcoin from Genesis in 2022.
It is still unclear whether this incident is a real attack, as no one has come forward to claim they are the victim.
When asked for more details, ZachXBT stated that he would not disclose the victim’s identity to respect their privacy.
However, the on-chain detective believes that the perpetrators are not the Lazarus Group, the notorious hacking group known for causing significant damage in the crypto industry. This belief is based on differences in money laundering behavior compared to previous incidents such as Ronin, Orbit Chain, CoinEx, Stake, Atomic Wallet, Harmony, DMM Bitcoin, and most recently, the WazirX exchange in July.
Recently, the crypto market has seen numerous large transactions from whales associated with Mt. Gox, BitGo, Tether, and other entities, including hundreds of millions of dollars worth of ETH being transferred to exchanges or used for staking.
