On December 28th, 30 cryptocurrency wallets belonging to Alameda Research, the bankrupt sister company of the popular crypto exchange FTX, suddenly became active after four weeks of inactivity. These wallets were used to swap and mix over $1.7 million worth of crypto assets through various crypto-mixing services.
Crypto mixers, also known as tumblers, are a controversial tool often used by market manipulators and criminals to obscure the transaction history of their funds. Mixing their cryptocurrency assets with those of other users makes it difficult or impossible to trace the funds back to their source.
Crypto forensic group Arkham has shared data showing that the first transfer of funds involving the recently active Alameda Research wallets began with multiple addresses swapping tokens for Ether before sending them to crypto mixers. According to Arkham, most transfers were tracked to two main wallets, starting with 0xe5D and 0x971.
The Alameda Research wallets began their crypto mixing activity by sending tokens to an address starting with 0x738. The funds were transferred to another address, starting with 0x64e. This 0x64e wallet split up the ETH and sent it to a series of smaller wallets, with most transfers between around $200,000 and $50,000. After being transferred to these smaller wallets, the ETH was sent to various crypto mixers.
The sudden activity of these Alameda Research wallets has raised concerns among the crypto community since Sam Bankman-Fried was just released on bail a few days ago, and the company is currently in bankruptcy proceedings. It is unclear at this time who is behind the crypto mixing or their motivations. Some speculate that the mixing could be an attempt to hide assets from creditors, while others fear it could be a sign of illegal activity.
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