Key Points
- The infamous hacker Blockchain Bandit, who stole 51,000 ETH coins, has transferred all funds to another wallet.
- The movement of Ethereum coincides with a drop in ETH price to $3,300.
The notorious hacker known as Blockchain Bandit, who stole 51,000 ETH coins, has recently moved the funds to a different wallet.
This hacker had been inactive for nearly two years and transferred the ETH holdings from 10 wallets to a multi-signature address, as reported by ZachXBT.
Details of the Transfer
The funds were transferred on December 30, mainly in batches of 5,000 Ether.
Until recently, the stolen funds had been inactive across ten wallet addresses since January 21, 2023, when the last transfer of 51,000 Ether occurred.
During this period, the hacker also moved 470 Bitcoins.
In 2019, Blockchain Bandit managed to amass 45,000 Ether by guessing weak private keys, according to a report from Independent Security Evaluators.
Despite the statistical improbability, the hacker successfully uncovered 732 private keys associated with 49,060 transactions.
Methodology and Speculation
The hacker identified the random private keys by exploiting faulty code and flawed random number generators, a method known as “Ethercombing”.
This form of “programmatic theft” has been ongoing since 2016, with significant exploits occurring in 2018, according to ZachXBT.
The identity of the Blockchain Bandit is still unknown, but crypto security analyst Adrian Bednarek has speculated that a state actor, possibly North Korea, could be responsible for the thefts.
Interestingly, this movement of Ethereum coincides with a drop in ETH price to $3,300.
As of the time of reporting, ETH price is trading 1.04% down at $3,377.26 with a market cap of $406 billion and daily trading volumes up 42% to $25.34 billion.
Ethereum, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, has been experiencing some volatility recently, dipping all the way to $3,300 in the last 24 hours before bouncing back to $3,400.
Ethereum is set to close December with a loss of approximately 10%, following a more hawkish-than-expected Federal Reserve meeting mid-month that sparked a broad market sell-off.
The altcoin has lost momentum, dipping below its 21-day and 50-day moving averages. However, the ETH price continues to find solid support around the $3,000 mark, above its 200-day moving average.
Crypto market analysts remain hopeful for Ethereum going into 2025, expecting it to hit fresh all-time highs.
Some market analysts also predict that ETH could scale all the way to $10,000-$15,000 by mid-2025.
