Arkham Traces $63 Million in Bitget Hack Funds Into CoinJoin Mixing

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Arkham Traces $63 Million in Bitget Hack Funds Into CoinJoin Mixing

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Bitcoin

Arkham says wallets it attributes to the Bitget hacker moved 847.26 BTC into CoinJoin transactions starting Nov. 6. CoinJoin complicates the recovery trail, and bitcoin lacks the centralized issuer that can freeze certain stablecoins.

Wallets Arkham attributes to the Bitget hacker sent 847.26 BTC into CoinJoin transactions, which the analytics firm values at $63.43 million. Arkham counted 66 transactions beginning Nov. 6, according to its update published Nov. 11.

Of that total, 579.80 BTC went directly into CoinJoin, while 267.46 BTC passed through fresh addresses in one to six intervening transfers.

What the labelled wallets still hold

Arkham said 1,052.34 BTC left its labelled hacker wallets over six days. The CoinJoin amount represents about 80.5% of those outflows.

Its snapshot put the remaining balance at 959.29 BTC, valued at $71.44 million. That is not a complete accounting of everything the attacker may still control.

Bitcoin records back one example, not the full tally

Bitcoin transaction data corroborate an early mixing transaction at 4:27 a.m. ET on Nov. 6, with six inputs totaling 18 BTC from addresses on Bitget's attacker-address list. That confirms one example rather than independently establishing Arkham's entire tally.

Bitget's separate tracking API lists 72 CoinJoin transactions with 866.23 BTC in gross inputs from Nov. 6 through 6:58 a.m. ET on Nov. 11. Its documentation warns that gross deposits can count coins again when they enter another mixing round, so the figures are not interchangeable with Arkham's.

Why mixing complicates recovery

CoinJoin combines multiple users' bitcoin in a single transaction, making it harder to determine which outgoing coins belong to each participant. Unlike certain stablecoins, bitcoin lacks a centralized issuer that can freeze balances.

BlockSec's September analysis found that Tether and Circle had frozen about $340,000 in stablecoins linked to the theft as of Sept. 29. Entering a CoinJoin transaction does not, by itself, establish that the funds have been cashed out or become unrecoverable.

The Sept. 24 breach cost the exchange approximately $388 million, according to Bitget's latest accounting. Bitget says tracking and recovery remain ongoing, and it offers eligible voluntary contributors bounties of 5% of funds successfully frozen or recovered.

Source: The Defiant

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