[2019-05-08] Hackers Are Shuffling Binance’s Stolen Bitcoin

[Decimation]

It appears that the BTC from the Binance hack is now being moved around to new addresses. The transactions are continuing to be sent out in smaller and smaller amounts, from one account to the next. Amy castor, a block-chain analyst, answers why the BTC is being moved so quickly with such a high rate of activity:

“Money laundering 101: breaking the transactions up into smaller and smaller amounts making them more and more difficult to track”

Article: https://www.coindesk.com/hackers-are-shuffling-binances-stolen-bitcoin

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[CryptoBry]

It appears that the BTC from the Binance hack is now being moved around to new addresses. The transactions are continuing to be sent out in smaller and smaller amounts, from one account to the next. Amy castor, a block-chain analyst, answers why the BTC is being moved so quickly with such a high rate of activity:

“Money laundering 101: breaking the transactions up into smaller and smaller amounts making them more and more difficult to track”

It is amazing that with the modern technology we have, people can be able to see and watch the movement of the stolen cryptocurrency but there is nothing we can do about. The technology we are employing is helpless in stopping the said movement...this is one thing I realized that no matter how advanced we are essentially we are still limited and sometimes powerless. This is akin to watching people being murdered while your hands and feet are tied. Such is the irony of a society relying so much in technology.

[vit05]

This is not money laundering. This is just a method of making tracking difficult. But money laundering would involve some action to legitimize possession of these assets.

[shamc]

It will get mixed soon enough and then sold to some unsuspecting fool who will probably get a knock on the door for handling and purchasing stolen goods.

[BitBustah]

It appears that the BTC from the Binance hack is now being moved around to new addresses. The transactions are continuing to be sent out in smaller and smaller amounts, from one account to the next. Amy castor, a block-chain analyst, answers why the BTC is being moved so quickly with such a high rate of activity:

“Money laundering 101: breaking the transactions up into smaller and smaller amounts making them more and more difficult to track”

It is amazing that with the modern technology we have, people can be able to see and watch the movement of the stolen cryptocurrency but there is nothing we can do about. The technology we are employing is helpless in stopping the said movement...this is one thing I realized that no matter how advanced we are essentially we are still limited and sometimes powerless. This is akin to watching people being murdered while your hands and feet are tied. Such is the irony of a society relying so much in technology.

If you want you are free to use centralized currency that can be reversed.  There are even centralized coins like EOS that can be reversed at the discretion of the controlling group.  This is just one of the few cons of a decentrlized currency.  Once it is in the hands of a scammer you will never get it back.

[Vishnu.Reang]

It is very difficult to hide the dirty coins now, and unless these hackers put the coins in cold storage for the next 3-4 years, they are going to get caught easily. But they seems to be desperate to cash out and this may prove to be their undoing. Anyone remember the Sheep Marketplace robbery in 2014? The hacker (Thomas Jiřikovský) mixed the coins several times and moved them around for almost one year. But even after all this, he was tracked and eventually sentenced to a prison term.

[NeuroticFish]

“Money laundering 101: breaking the transactions up into smaller and smaller amounts making them more and more difficult to track”

I'm curious if Zhao discussed with some of the mixers' owners to block those funds. That would be an interesting move. Then the hacker may end up with a pile of Bitcoins he cannot ever use, unless he'll start sending to unsuspecting fools really small chunks. Or simply with the money seized by the mixer and returned to CZ.

[Harlot]

I'm getting worried about that if things got out of hand authorities will have the idea to freeze wallet accounts that have touch these stolen coins. Which will surely affect a lot of people whobare unaware that the coins they have received recently are from the hack. I'm just talking about hypotheticals here but this has been talked recently in the past and I think this is their only plausible way to catch up to hackers right after they have stolen the funds. After all recovery of the stolen cryptos is what them and the victims are after.

[BitBustah]

“Money laundering 101: breaking the transactions up into smaller and smaller amounts making them more and more difficult to track”

I'm curious if Zhao discussed with some of the mixers' owners to block those funds. That would be an interesting move. Then the hacker may end up with a pile of Bitcoins he cannot ever use, unless he'll start sending to unsuspecting fools really small chunks. Or simply with the money seized by the mixer and returned to CZ.

He doesn't have that kind of power , mixers are out to make money and a lot of their customers are involved in shady activity.  There are many different mixers that the hackers will be using and they will obviously do it in small chunks if they are smart.

Its easy to get away with stolen coins if you have half a brain and are patient. 

[Kemarit]

“Money laundering 101: breaking the transactions up into smaller and smaller amounts making them more and more difficult to track”

I'm curious if Zhao discussed with some of the mixers' owners to block those funds. That would be an interesting move. Then the hacker may end up with a pile of Bitcoins he cannot ever use, unless he'll start sending to unsuspecting fools really small chunks. Or simply with the money seized by the mixer and returned to CZ.

I think some exchanges have notified CZ already that they will block those addresses, but I don't know if he has discussed this to some known mixers to block it as well. But it's going to be difficult to get their cooperation though. Anyways, there are a lot of blockchain forensics right now and I'm sure their hands are full trying to track everything down to the smallest amounts and where it goes.

[BitHodler]

I think some exchanges have notified CZ already that they will block those addresses, but I don't know if he has discussed this to some known mixers to block it as well.

If you look at the outputs, two of them went to 3BMEX addresses, which I find very strange if these turn out to be actual BitMEX addresses. My first thought is that it is an utter stupid move from the hackers.

My second thought, considering that it only concerns a small amount, is that the hackers are testing how an exchange as BitMEX reacts. More like will the funds be blocked immediately or can they freely withdraw them...

As for the mixers, I doubt they will respond to such requests. If they are really valuing people's privacy, regardless of the coin taint, they'll mix it and let the 'clean' coins be withdrawn.

[figmentofmyass]

It is very difficult to hide the dirty coins now, and unless these hackers put the coins in cold storage for the next 3-4 years, they are going to get caught easily.

if i were one of these hackers, i'd wait until we had secure and liquid sidechains with confidential transaction (CT) capability and then (in combination with other obfuscation methods) very slowly bleed the coins into circulation depending on available transaction liquidity. it'll probably take longer than 3-4 years. even then, it's impossible to know whether you're staying ahead of law enforcement. these protocols are all very new. it's often years later that we realize how much identifying information we're leaking even when using best practices at the time.

But they seems to be desperate to cash out and this may prove to be their undoing.

what's the point of robbing a bank if you can't spend the money?

[stomachgrowls]

It appears that the BTC from the Binance hack is now being moved around to new addresses. The transactions are continuing to be sent out in smaller and smaller amounts, from one account to the next. Amy castor, a block-chain analyst, answers why the BTC is being moved so quickly with such a high rate of activity:

“Money laundering 101: breaking the transactions up into smaller and smaller amounts making them more and more difficult to track”

Article: https://www.coindesk.com/hackers-are-shuffling-binances-stolen-bitcoin

Assuming im the hacker with those 7000 funds i would definitely done the same thing.Breaking the amount into smaller amounts and with new addresses.

Tracking it completely would be more harder compared on just seeing the funds being moved completely in bulk.This is what a smart hacker would do so theres nothing

special with this one yet these funds wont ever be recovered specially if these coins would be mixed up.Just move on people.

[Snaic]

It appears that the BTC from the Binance hack is now being moved around to new addresses. The transactions are continuing to be sent out in smaller and smaller amounts, from one account to the next. Amy castor, a block-chain analyst, answers why the BTC is being moved so quickly with such a high rate of activity:

“Money laundering 101: breaking the transactions up into smaller and smaller amounts making them more and more difficult to track”

It is amazing that with the modern technology we have, people can be able to see and watch the movement of the stolen cryptocurrency but there is nothing we can do about. The technology we are employing is helpless in stopping the said movement...this is one thing I realized that no matter how advanced we are essentially we are still limited and sometimes powerless. This is akin to watching people being murdered while your hands and feet are tied. Such is the irony of a society relying so much in technology.

We want to be anonymous and use confidentiality when using cryptocurrency. These are the consequences of such opportunities. However, with a strong desire and abilities of the police, if you watch such movements of stolen bitcoins for a long time, in the end it is quite possible to reach real criminals. Sooner or later they will make mistakes and reveal themselves. The police just need to do their job conscientiously.

[Naida_BR]

Something interesting would be what we can do with those funds that are stolen.
Is there a chance of burn them?
I don't think that hackers are going to cash out these money. They will just move them around and around or try to buy products with them. Every crypto to fiat platform asks for KYC now so they are going to be identified if they try to do so.

[figmentofmyass]

Something interesting would be what we can do with those funds that are stolen.
Is there a chance of burn them?

why though? for the medium term, they are effectively burned. exchanges will immediately freeze these outputs if deposited.

this isn't a problem for bitcoin users. if the hackers are smart, these coins will be removed from supply for years until there is better means to wash them. this only benefits users in terms of price because it removes active coins from circulation.

[1Referee]

Is there a chance of burn them?

You can try to convince the hackers to delete every private key or send the coins to one of the multiple publicly known burn addresses. Give it a shot. Ask them on social media to do it.

I don't think that hackers are going to cash out these money. They will just move them around and around or try to buy products with them. Every crypto to fiat platform asks for KYC now so they are going to be identified if they try to do so.

The hackers will very likely sell them through peer to peer transactions where innocent people end up buying these coins. Or the hackers will exchange these coins for drugs or whatever, then sell to fiat. It doesn't really matter if it is a process that ends up taking years with how Bitcoin continues to gain value.

[pixie85]

I think some exchanges have notified CZ already that they will block those addresses, but I don't know if he has discussed this to some known mixers to block it as well. But it's going to be difficult to get their cooperation though. Anyways, there are a lot of blockchain forensics right now and I'm sure their hands are full trying to track everything down to the smallest amounts and where it goes.

They could do it. There were cases of exchanges blocking stolen cryptos before.
If hackers are smart they will buy monero or zcash to better hide the coins instead of trying to mix them. While CZ is doing his talking hackers could be talking with some shady exchanges like yobit to help them launder if for a hefty fee.

[1BTC EQUALS 1CAR]

All of you people already figured out many ways how the hackers will succeed taking all the money they stole and withdrawing it without getting caught. It just simply means that they have a lot of options while Cz has no power to stop them. In short, hackers always win in crypto.

[gabbie2010]

Binance should orchestrate a well coordinated operations to track and prevent those stolen coins from being cash out, involvement of Cz is a welcome development however the bunch of the job lies on tracking or tracing those coins using bitcoin mixers.
Hackers sophistication is soaring on daily  basis its high time exchanges stem the tide as regards this reoccurring cases of hacking else cryptocurrencies will become a subject of untrustworthy.

[Whittiesense]

It appears that the BTC from the Binance hack is now being moved around to new addresses. The transactions are continuing to be sent out in smaller and smaller amounts, from one account to the next. Amy castor, a block-chain analyst, answers why the BTC is being moved so quickly with such a high rate of activity:

“Money laundering 101: breaking the transactions up into smaller and smaller amounts making them more and more difficult to track”

It is amazing that with the modern technology we have, people can be able to see and watch the movement of the stolen cryptocurrency but there is nothing we can do about. The technology we are employing is helpless in stopping the said movement...this is one thing I realized that no matter how advanced we are essentially we are still limited and sometimes powerless. This is akin to watching people being murdered while your hands and feet are tied. Such is the irony of a society relying so much in technology.

First of all, it was a big shock that Binance security was breached. Hearing this for the first time since the incident, its sad that all we can do is just sit and watch as they take advantage of the loop holes despite the technology we have. Isn't there a possibility that this can be traced and stopped? Are we ever get to the that stage in tech where cases like these can be resolved be with ease? #developers