FTX Exploiter Transfers 5,000 ETH Ahead of Ether Futures ETF Launch

Some 5,000 ETH, worth over $8.2 million, have been moved from a wallet address associated with the FTX hacker. This development marks the first time assets have been transferred out of the hacker’s wallet following the exploit about a year ago.

FTX Hacker Moves 5,000 ETH, Spot On Chain Reveals

Marked as one the biggest crypto heists ever, the now-defunct FTX exchange suffered a loss of over $600 million through an hack in November 2022, a few hours after filing for bankruptcy. 

According to the on-chain analytics platform Spot On Chain, the FTX exploiter has now transferred 5,000 ETH in two transactions, moving 2,500 ETH to two separate wallets with a space of two hours between both transactions. 

🚨🚨 FTX Exploiter 0x3e957 just moved 2500 $ETH ($4.2M) to new addresses

This is the first time the address has been active since the hack 10 months ago. The address still holds 12.5K $ETH

Follow the next actions via our platform at

https://t.co/7LnmryLvhL pic.twitter.com/yl2NnMwaqW

— Spot On Chain (@spotonchain) September 30, 2023

Spot on Chain further revealed that following the first transaction, the hacker moved 700 ETH through the Thorchain Router and 1,200 ETH through the DeFi wallet Railgun, both crypto projects that are lauded for their privacy-focused features.

Aside from the origin of these transferred assets, the movements of the FTX exploiter have drawn much attention due to a key development in the crypto space, with many enthusiasts and analysts now speculating on a possible market sell-off. 

Could FTX Hacker Be Planning A Sell-Off As Ether Futures ETF Launch Nears?

This week, reports swelled that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was looking to clear some Ether futures ETH for launch next week ahead of a possible government shutdown.

These reports picked up more steam in less than a day when the VanEck Investment firm announced plans to soon launch an Ether futures ETH, named the VanEck Ethereum Strategy ETF. 

However, Valkyrie Investments, who had been tipped to be the forerunner for the SEC’s approval, finally won the race, securing the commission’s green light to launch the first-ever Ether futures ETF in the US. 

Following the official launch of an Ether futures ETF, there is likely a massive positive effect on ETH price movement. Just in the last two days of similar positive news around this investment fund, the second-largest cryptocurrency already rose by 4%, based on data from CoinMarketCap. 

Now, the recent token transfers by the FTX hacker are usually associated with an impending sell action. Thus, there is a possibility that this bad actor could be planning to take profit from the potential ETH price surge, which could be generated from the launch of ETH futures ETF. 

Such selling action is a common practice by crypto whales and is known to induce a bearish trend, which could be dangerous for small traders. 

At the time of writing, ETH trades at $1,677, with a 5.77% gain in the last day. Meanwhile, the token’s daily trading volume is down by 44.35% and valued at $3.8 billion. 

ETH trading at $1,675.57 on the hourly chart | Source: ETHUSDT chart on Tradingview.com

Featured image from Money,chart from Tradingview