bankruptcy proceedings, insider threat or hack?

The recent tensions between the two major crypto exchanges FTX and Binance, which was accompanied by a massive sale of FTX Token (FTT), resulted in the collapse of approximately 130 companies linked to the FTX Group – including FTX Trading, FTX US, West Realm Shires Services and Alameda Research.
Following the resignation of FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and the disclosure of the company’s intention to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, on-chain data suggested bankruptcy proceedings began when several FTX wallets were found transferring funds to a common Ethereum (ETH). ) wallet address.
The wallet address in question received funds from various international and US-based wallets linked to FTX, which collected over 83,878.63 ETH (worth over $1[ads1]05.3 million) in just two hours from 9:20 PM ET on November 11th and continued to see an inflow of funds at the time of writing.
Or Sam wants to do it all back in a trade pic.twitter.com/p38fQ516Gv
— Steven (@Dogetoshi) 12 November 2022
With all eyes on FTX, the late-night fund transfers on a Friday night raised questions about the company’s intent. While some blockchain investigators saw it as the start of the bankruptcy process, speculation surfaced surrounding malicious intent or an external hack into the crypto ecosystem.

The wallet owner was found to exchange $26 million of Tether (USDT) to DAI via 1inclh while endorsing USDP – a Paxos-issued stablecoin – for trading on the CoW Protocol. As the situation unfolds, the wallet also approved transfers and sales of other cryptocurrencies, including Chainlink (LINK), cUSDT, and stETH.
The funds that came from FTX wallets were later moved to new addresses, one of which was marked as FTX on Etherscan, as pointed out by blockchain investigator PeckShield. An investigation too confirmed that 8000 ETH was wormholed from Solana to one of the new addresses in the last hour.

The involvement of a hacker, at this point, seems unlikely, as they would normally have moved funds from FTX’s wallet to their own wallets. However, many pointed out the possible involvement of an insider.
Until the dust settles, the community continues to monitor the movement of funds. However, investors are advised to avoid speculation until confirmed reports come in. FTX has yet to respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.
Related: FTX’s ongoing saga: Everything that has happened so far
Adding to investor concerns, FTX sources told Reuters that between $1 billion and $2 billion of client money is not accounted for in the company’s spreadsheets.
The unconfirmed report also suggests that SBF secretly moved $10 billion in funds to Alameda Research, while pointing out that the whereabouts of the missing funds remain unknown.