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On December 28, 30 cryptocurrency wallets linked to Alameda Research, the bankrupt sister company of crypto exchange FTX, became active again after four weeks of inactivity. These wallets mixed and swapped over $1.7 million worth of crypto assets through various crypto-mixing services. Crypto mixers are often used by market exploiters and criminals to obscure the transaction path so that the funds cannot be traced back to the original source.
According to data shared by the crypto forensic group Arkham, the first transfer of funds began with multiple Alameda addresses swapping tokens for Ether and Tether, sending them to crypto mixers. A majority of these transfers were traced to two main wallets starting with 0xe5D and 0x971. The tokens were then sent to smaller wallets in amounts generally around $200,000 and $50,000, before being sent to mixers such as Fixedfloat and ChangeNOW.
Another wallet was used to swap for stablecoins, with the assets first being swapped into USDT and then sent to Fixedfloat. A total of 800,000 USDT was swapped out using mixers, while another 400,000 USDT was funneled through other methods. An additional 200,000 USDT worth of stablecoins were sent to the BTC network using renBTC.
In total, $1.7 million worth of funds were swapped and sent through various mixing services, including 270.5 ETH through ChangeNOW, 800,000 USDT through Fixedfloat, 200,000 USDT through Curve SynthSwap, 200,000 USDT through Airswap, and 200,000 USDT through other crypto-mixing services.
The sudden movement of funds from Alameda wallets, just days after the release of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman Fried on bail, has raised suspicions in the crypto community. The use of mixing services and extensive planning to hide transaction routes only adds to the mystery. Many are questioning the timing of the fund transfers and the inability of authorities to prevent such activity, even though the matter is currently sub judice.
