The FTX exploiter is one of the largest holders of Ethereum in the world.
After an exploit on FTX late on Friday, which onlookers think is an inside job, the attacker converted lots of the stolen tokens to ETH through several DeFi protocols.
Analysis from crypto intelligence firm Arkham shows that the FTX attacker converted their entire $48.4 million DAI balance to ETH via decentralized exchange CowSwap, then swapped $4 million DAI to ETH and $5 million USDT to ETH using two separate accounts, without being blacklistedThe recent conversions puts the FTX exploiter’s total ETH holdings at 228,523 ETH, worth around $285 million at the time of writing. That makes the attacker fairly high up in the Ethereum rich list. According to PeckShield, the address associated with the theft is now the 35th largest holder of ETH
In total, the FTX drainer now holds $339 million worth of crypto. Arkham’s data shows that the FTX drainer holds $41 million BNB on Binance Smart Chain and $3.8 million MATIC in the Matic Bridge. The $20 million PAXG tokens in their possession was frozen by the token’s issuer Paxos earlier this week, at the request of law enforcement.
The attacker’s on-chain activity are the work of an inexperienced attacker, Arkham CEO Miguel Morel told CoinDesk on Monday.
The attacker lost significant amounts of their holdings on several transactions that appeared to be driven by panic. “They’ve hastily tried to do whatever they can with the funds, seemingly without much of a plan,” Morel told CoinDesk.
