On-chain data reveals that Alameda Research's crypto wallet swapped multiple ERC20 tokens for Tether's USDT stablecoin.
Many in the crypto industry are calling it an insider job, casting doubt on Sam Bankman-Fried.
30 crypto wallets linked to Alameda Research, the bankrupt sister company of crypto exchange FTX, became active on December 28. These wallets swapped and mixed over $1.7 million in crypto assets using multiple crypto-mixing services.
Crypto mixers are commonly utilized by market manipulators and criminals to disguise the transaction trail, allowing funds to be tracked back to their original source.
As media outlets reported on December 28, the unexpected withdrawal of funds from Alameda wallets just days after Sam Bankman Fried was released on bail raised concerns in the crypto community. Nearly 24 hours later, it appears that the perpetrator of these fund transfers utilized extensive planning to conceal transaction routes.
The first flow of assets began with numerous Alameda addresses exchanging tokens for Ether/Tether and sending them to crypto mixers, according to data released by the crypto forensic firm Arkham. The majority of these payments were traced back to two primary wallets with the prefixes 0xe5D and 0x971.
Tokens from the Alameda wallet were initially transmitted to an address starting with 0x738, then to an address starting with 0x64e. This 0x64e wallet then divides the ETH and transmits it to smaller wallets, typically $200,000 and $50,000. It was then transmitted to mixers like Fixedfloat and ChangeNOW.
Another wallet was used to swap for stablecoins, with wallet assets first being converted into USDT and then transferred to Fixedfloat. A total of 800,000 USDT was exchanged through mixers, with another 400,000 USDT funneled through other means. renBTC was used to send 200,000 USDT worth of stablecoins to the BTC network.
In total, $1.7 million in funds were swapped and transmitted through the following mixing services:
270.5 ETH through ChangeNOW ($325k)
800,000 USDT through Fixedfloat
200,000 USDT via Curve SynthSwap (to native BTC)
200,000 USDT via Airswap
200,000 USDT via various cryptocurrency mixing services
The transfer of funds from the Alameda wallet through mixing tools sparked a lot of controversy in the cryptocurrency community. Many people are questioning the timing of the financial transfers, while others point to the use of mixing services and the helplessness of authorities to prevent such behavior despite the fact that the case is still in court.
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