Data specialists at the infrastructure firm Elementus have published details of recent transactions from the CoinBene crypto exchange that they consider suspicious, starting at $ 105 million.
The results, which are reportedly based on data obtained using the Elementus Query Engine, were published on March 27th. Elementus also provides independently verifiable raw data that readers can download and compare with the Ethereum blockchain (ETH).
As previously reported, CoinBene was asked yesterday to reassure users that the unpredictable maintenance period was not actually caused by burglary, as some community members suspected.
Presenting its findings, Elementus resolutely declares that it does not seek to "refute what CoinBene claims to be."
Nevertheless, he presents several key observations based on his conclusions, arguing that the identified transfer scheme and sequence of events “are consistent with how the stock hacks are usually played”, that is, “a large amount of funds are quickly withdrawn, a period of inactivity, and the remaining funds are protected. in a cold wallet.
The Elementus conclusions are organized as a timeline covering March 25-26 EST:
“Monday, March 25, 2:58 pm: a series of transfers totaling $ 105 million starts with a hot CoinBene wallet at three different addresses. Monday, March 25, 18:24. CoinBene hot wallet ceases to operate and remains inactive for 8 hours. Tuesday, March 26, 2:44: The hot CoinBene wallet starts to transfer funds to a cold wallet. ”
The key point that Elementus focuses on is the fact that the number of cryptographic tools transferred is huge, and although such large transfers can indeed occur when exchanges move funds between hot and cold wallets, "this is clearly not what is happening here," considering that:
“After leaving CoinBene, tokens were quickly moved to Etherdelta, where they were sold for ETH. A large amount of funds was also transferred to centralized exchanges, including Binance, Huobi and Bittrex. The funds continue to flow to the exchanges when I write this. ”
Elementus argues that transfers between multiple intermediary wallets are not typical of exchanges, but instead are typical for people who want to hide their traces by channeling illegally received funds through a series of “wide addresses”.
Elementus notes that the market value of $ 105 million covers positions in 110 different cryptographic defenses, the largest of which is Maximine worth $ 70 million , a sign whose price has reportedly increased by 754.5 percent since the beginning of March.
Elementus also notes that CoinBene was identified as a prime example in a recent analysis of a crypto-index provider, Bitwise Asset Management, on suspicion of fake trading on crypto exchanges presented to the US Securities and Exchange Commission last week.
As previously reported, CoinBene – currently ranked 10th on CoinMarketCap for adjusted daily trading volume – stated that service downtime was a preventive measure and that it was working to improve the security of the exchange wallet.
