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FTX Crypto Wallets See Mysterious Late-Night Outflows Totalling More than $380M (coindesk.com) 59

More than $380 million in crypto left bankrupt crypto company FTX's wallets late Friday, with little clear explanation as to why. CoinDesk: According to on-chain data, various Ethereum tokens, as well as Solana and Binance Smart Chain tokens have exited FTX's official wallets and moved to decentralized exchanges like 1inch. Both FTX and FTX US appear to be affected. FTX US general counsel Ryne Miller tweeted that he was "investigating abnormalities with wallet movements related to consolidation of ftx balances across exchanges."

The transfers, which have not been addressed officially by FTX leadership, come on the same day that the firm officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after apparently losing billions of dollars in user funds. Many FTX wallet holders are also reporting that they are seeing $0 balances in their FTX.com and FTX US wallets.
There are indications that FTX may have been hacked.

At least $1 billion of customer funds have vanished from collapsed crypto exchange FTX, Reuters reported separately. From the report: The exchange's founder Sam Bankman-Fried secretly transferred $10 billion of customer funds from FTX to Bankman-Fried's trading company Alameda Research, the people told Reuters. A large portion of that total has since disappeared, they said. One source put the missing amount at about $1.7 billion. The other said the gap was between $1 billion and $2 billion.
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FTX Crypto Wallets See Mysterious Late-Night Outflows Totalling More than $380M

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  • by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Saturday November 12, 2022 @12:02AM (#63044993)

    You're trying to claim there might be something jenky going on with crypto funds? We're gonna need a lot of proof proof - up until now, crypto exchanges have consistently been paragons of ethical business dealings and security best practices.

  • by drew_92123 ( 213321 ) on Saturday November 12, 2022 @12:02AM (#63044997)

    ...not just for CEOs.

  • Goxxed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by silentbozo ( 542534 ) on Saturday November 12, 2022 @12:05AM (#63045001) Journal

    The part I don't understand is how they managed to convince people to put real money into a crypto exchange to being with...

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Easy: Make it look like a bank, and crypto look like just another currency, like a money market account.

      Then add everyone and their bro saying how easy it is to get rich from it and how someone buying a pizza in ~2010 would be able to retire today on some BTC. People bought the hype, and because cryptocurrency is a horrendous minefield, many lost their shirt.

      • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

        Easy: Make it look like a bank, and crypto look like just another currency, like a money market account.

        Fox News, Trump, and just general right-wing postmodernism of Alternate Facts ("my emotions are better than evidence") just primed the suckers of the world to become completely unable to tell the difference between real banks and real money and fake banks with their fake money.

        • I don't disagree with the first part of your statement, but you can't say that's the cause here. Get-rich-quick schemes have been around for centuries. Combine that with the common right-wing viewpoint in the US (and probably elsewhere) that there are no poor people, only temporarily embarrassed millionaires (which also isn't new), and with the general desperation of poor people in the US (and probably elsewhere), and you get a lot of people who think they see their chance to not be temporarily embarrassed
    • The part I don't understand is how they managed to convince people to put real money into a crypto exchange to being with...

      That's nothing, I hear there are also companies that still to this day use a form of paid public messaging to convince people to buy products which are addictive and/or harmful to your health! Can you believe it?!

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Well, now they are trying to convince people they got hacked. Lets see how that goes.

    • Re:Goxxed (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Calydor ( 739835 ) on Saturday November 12, 2022 @02:16AM (#63045075)

      To paraphrase Zuckerberg about the beginning of Facebook, "I told people to give me all their information - and THEY DID!"

    • The part I don't understand is how they managed to convince people to put real money into a crypto exchange to being with...

      That's easy. Crypto is utterly useless for any transactions unless backed by an exchange. No one waits for their transaction to commit to a ledger when doing a transfer, so they have a 3rd party assume the risk on their behalf.

      Crypto frankly can't work without an exchange. Sitting around hoping that you can mine enough bitcoin to your local wallet so you can order dinner from your local wallet in a transaction that takes 20min to confirm not a functional use of a currency.

      • by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

        And that's completely besides the point, the mistake is people are letting these exchanges look after their wallets.

        • I will admit my possible lack of understanding here... but if you keep anything in an exchange wallet you need to transfer between a private wallet via the ledger any time you want to use fiat or a different cryptocurrency, no? And, if you want a proper security, you need to transfer from that private wallet to an offline wallet for any "savings" ? The last part is what gets me, I guess.

          That is a lot of work for some people, especially if they don't fully understand the risk.

          • by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

            If you want proper security for 'savings' / your crypto stash then the last thing you do is let someone else handle it, you 1st put your wallet into a encrypted file with a strong password then you keep lots of copies of that file so as not to lose it to drive failure, ransomware etc, emailing the file to a couple of email accounts for instance. Or burn it to CD or put it on a usb key, but those are prone to failure.

            It doesn't seem that complicated to me, you just 7zip the file with password encryption and

            • Right, but do you need (for lack of a better term) "Checking", "Money Market" , and "Savings" wallets, where checking is equivalent to an exchange, money market is an online wallet active on your computer, and a savings wallet that is encrypted and in your sole control... or can you skip the "money market" equivalent wallet?

              • by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

                There are no 'online' or 'active' wallets AFAIK but someone who understands the transaction process better than me would need to explain how a money transaction takes place and how that is recorded to your wallet for money going in or out, transactions can be slow I can't see a transaction failing because you're not internet connected, that wouldn't make sense. What happens is there is a giant global transaction log and it confirms that your wallet owns particular cyptocoins or parts of coins. So perhaps yo

            • If you want proper security for 'savings' / your crypto stash then the last thing you do is let someone else handle it

              False. People largely haven't a fucking clue about security. Telling them to handle their own crypto is like telling them to walk around with their life savings in their pocket, ready for mugging at any point. You're talking about people who's PIN is 0000 on their phone and have their password to their crypto wallet managed by that PIN lock and who ultimately install any bullshit software regardless of what permissions it asks for (yes on the official app stores there have been programs which specifically i

              • by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

                Covered by previous reply, giving other people your money without leaning anything about the system you are giving your money to is flat out stupid regardless of any bank analogy.

                Putting money in to a bank after there's just been a run on 10 other banks, that would be stupid. How many exchanges have lost money to fraud now? I've certainly lost count.

        • And that's completely besides the point, the mistake is people are letting these exchanges look after their wallets.

          To consider that stupid you have to equate it to something real. People do what they know. And people know ... banks. In the real money world the complete opposite of the OP's statement is true, only the truly stupid would store their wealth as cash in their house / on their person.

          If you want to understand why people would use a "cypto bank" it's because people use real banks too.

          • by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

            And it's still stupid regardless, crypto is a stupid waste of time, money, energy, resources. Crypto currency is currently useless, not good for micro-transactions, only good for black market buying but not very good for that either since transactions are public and it's just security through obscurity.

            The analogy doesn't work, using crypto is stupid regardless of what banks do. Using a form of currency without learning anything about that currency is extra stupid and asking to be scammed.

    • For some people the constitution only makes sense if you get something. So the more $100 bills that shoot out a duck's ass when you pet it the more constitution you want.

  • by haunebu ( 16326 ) on Saturday November 12, 2022 @12:26AM (#63045019) Homepage

    Just another Bernie Madoff. There's a reason the moneychangers have a bad reputation that spans centuries and continents.

  • by Powercntrl ( 458442 ) on Saturday November 12, 2022 @12:54AM (#63045029) Homepage

    Absolutely no possible way it was yet another in a long line of crypto exchange insider rug-pull scams. No sir-ee Bob.

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      But, but, but, they say they got HACKED! Just in time at the last minute too! Obviously these dastardly hackers have been lying in wait and did it at the last moment!

      In other news, the ways people are trying to camouflage rug-pulls have gotten even more stupid...

    • Who knows what happened. But I like to picture SBF posting on some forum a way in to his system, as a last big FU to everyone before they lay the cuffs on him.

    • by orlanz ( 882574 )

      It is honestly getting pretty messed up. I don't think there really is one, but atleast we can try to have a good debate on Crypto exchanges and wallets and coins and currencies.

      But the shear number of incidents and the quantities of lost funds at multiple operations is just so much incompetence. And the nature of the concept doesn't really give you stop controls and undo buttons or wait periods.

      One would think consumer confidence would be in the gutters a while back but we keep finding fools with too muc

  • Rumor has it
  • by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Saturday November 12, 2022 @01:33AM (#63045047)

    I think that is the key-phrase here. Really just business as usual in the crypto-"currency" and DeFi world. How these people thought nobody would notice is an interesting question though.

    Anyways, heard a nice quote just recently: "Not your keys, not your crypto". An "FTX wallet" is not really a wallet, it is more an expression of a foolish hope...

  • Is that some new corporate BS-speak for "theft"?

  • A rug pull isn't just when I grab my wife's pubes.

  • People thinking they can't secure their wealth and need to rely on an institution like they have with banks their entire lives are getting eaten alive. The people avoiding the garbage are storing their keys themselves. Just like cash under the bed there's risks involved, but ultimately do you trust your matress/usb drive, or do you trust a counter party to hold your wealth? All wealth storage methods have risks. Some have more options than others. Gold bars are similar to crypto but at least you can get ins
    • by HiThere ( 15173 )

      There's a problem with that. The value exists only if you can exchange it for something else of value. If you disable all the ways of making an exchange, the value is gone. (This is as true of cash as it is of bitcoins, but governments generally ensure that cash can be used to pay taxes.)

      Gold bars are distinct from crypto, in that they actually have real value. You can make decorations out of them, use them to plate electrical contacts, etc. Cyrpto doesn't have any direct uses. It's more like paper mo

  • I wonder... is it evidence of a "hack" or evidence of an insider operation to cash out of a failing business and make it look like a hack?

  • Isn't that the key selling point of crypto? You have a centralized asset (your wallet) that gets decentralized over many many other people

  • by Lisandro ( 799651 ) on Saturday November 12, 2022 @06:36AM (#63045273)

    Impossible to understand. How could we ever find out what actually happened? It's a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma.

    You gave your money to a guy running a Ponzi scheme, the scheme collapsed, and now the guy is running away with your money. Because why the hell wouldn't they?

  • ... I can't trust the purveyors of imaginary money????
    • by HiThere ( 15173 )

      You can't trust the purveyors of ordinary money either. Even gold currencies were debased by the issuing governments. But there are degrees and degrees. Bitcoins seem to have set a new low.

  • Psst! Your buddy made 1 brazillion Fairy Coin Dollars, you don't want to miss out, do you? Just deposit your real dollars into our casino. We'll give you 10x your FCDs ... soon. Don't worry, we'll hold your keys, you can trust us. Woopsie! All your Fairy Coins disappeared !
    We are SO sorry. But I wasn't us. I read that on Tweeter, so... must be true. I'll be on some Carribbean Island that isn't the Bahamas if you want to find me.
  • Aka own embezzling funds out under the guise of being "hacked".
  • It's crazy because crypto is easier to steal then cash in most ways. Plus crypto exchanges seem to lose money and people aren't going to like any of this. People are going to complain a lot about this lost money. I think at the end of the day the exchanges will become very regulated and they will need to have things like insurance to back up holdings.
  • My Transfers to Kraken have not gone through, so I am a little mythed how other 380M transfers made it out.
  • It's just as likely someone in the company stole the coins as it is a friend slipping and injuring themselves after you won a $2 billion jackpot.

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