Whoever was responsible for the $600 million FTX cryptocurrency exchange hack started trading ether for Ren Bitcoin (renBTC), a token that stands in for bitcoin on other blockchains, early on Sunday.
Over the past week, FTX funds were gradually converted to ether, making the exploiter, as previously reported, one of the token's largest holders.
In 2021, Alameda Research, the Sam Bankman-Fried-owned trading arm at the center of a multibillion-dollar scandal, announced that Ren's development team was "joining" Alameda and would work on extending Ren's usage to several blockchains. This move may surprise some in the cryptocurrency community.
According to blockchain data, the hacker transferred more than 5,000 ether to a new wallet at 7:27 UTC on Sunday. Then, 3 separate transactions totaling 35,000 more ether were made to that wallet.
The exploiter afterwards started converting ether to renBTC via the decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch, according to on-chain examination of the new wallet. In the first of these exchanges, 4,000 ether was first changed into wrapped bitcoin (wBTC), another currency that serves as a representation of bitcoin, and then into renBTC.
Blockchain data reveals that the exploiter carried on converting ether to renBTC across a number of transactions.
According to information supplied by the security company PeckShield, the exploiter sent thousands of renBTC out via the Ren bridge. Bridges are technologies built on the blockchain that let users trade tokens between other networks.
The Ren bridge has reportedly been used to launder stolen money to the tune of at least $540 million, according to a study by blockchain analysis company Elliptic, as it obscures addresses and gives users privacy.
