Several wallets associated with Sam Bankman-Fried’s trading firm Alameda Research came to life late a few hours ago, swapping various cryptocurrencies.
Martin Lee, a data journalist at Nansen, was among the blockchain sleuths to point to “lots of activity going on among Alameda wallets” in the late hours on Tuesday evening, with various Ethereum-based tokens consolidated into two main wallets, which were later swapped for Ethereum (ETH) and Tether (USDT).
The transactions in question included 3,263 Convex Finance tokens (CVX) worth $11,390 sent from Convex Finance to an Alameda Research wallet.
These funds were then sent to a MetaMask wallet, along with 74,112 CRV, equivalent to $39,152, again sent from Alameda Research to a MetaMask wallet.
A third transfer of 45.6 ETH worth $55,219 was sent to an unknown address, with the funds further sent to instant exchange services ChangeNow and FixedFloat.
1/ Lots of activity going on among Alameda wallets in the past 6-7 hours
Various tokens on ETH being consolidated into 2 main wallets
Swapped to ETH/USDT (USDC to USDT too)
USDT thn swapped to ETH
Sent to multiple wallets and thn to FixedFloat/Changenow
Source: @nansen_ai pic.twitter.com/NfTe9CoY9K
— Martin Lee | Nansen 🧭 (@themlpx) December 28, 2022
“Transactions seem odd to me. Consolidation makes sense, but after it’s being consolidated, the funds get sent to fresh wallets before it gets sent to ChangeNow /FixedFloat,” added Lee.
Research firm OXT also noted that the way the funds have been swapped “rings some major alarm bells.”
On-chain sleuth ZachXBT further revealed that the funds had been swapped for Bitcoin (BTC)
The funds are being swapped for BTC
bc1q67r2dc46ve66pe2qr9smaz5ktzefehugky5sv6
bc1qk4mnz4qkh9vfcm95z6ww9czhzjsknjr8s457mg
bc1qwx3herf245w6k9ljjfgdsngtvjsp3qs6znp8dd
bc1q7p22k0ly0pmy04ermzu76uyylveehu9cusrcnp pic.twitter.com/ueYLjQOalZ
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) December 28, 2022
Who’s behind the Alameda transactions?
Commenting on suggestions that the transfers could have been initiated by FTX liquidators, ZachXBT sounded skeptical, saying it is unlikely that they would use services such as FixedFloat or ChangeNow.
Though it’s unclear at the moment who is responsible for the transactions, the timing comes just a few days after FTX founder Bankman-Fried—also known as SBF— was released on bail under a $250 million bond agreement.
The disgraced crypto mogul is now awaiting trial under house arrest at his parents’ house in Palo Alto, California, with electronic location monitoring, as well as restrictions on spending, business activities, and firearms imposed under the terms of the release.
The court document doesn’t mention internet access restrictions for SBF.
SBF, who allegedly committed fraud by using customer funds to place bets via his trading house Alameda Research, is facing a total of eight criminal charges after being arrested in the Bahamas earlier this month.
Stay on top of crypto news, get daily updates in your inbox.
Source: https://decrypt.co/118049/alameda-linked-addresses-begin-swapping-ethereum-erc-20-tokens-bitcoin
