Key Notes
- Blockchain Bandit transferred stolen Ethereum after nearly two years of dormancy, with the hacker last transferring the stolen funds in January 2023.
- The hacker gained access to the stolen funds by guessing weak private keys, using a brute-force technique called “Ethercombing”.
- Ethereum (ETH) price has experienced recent price fluctuations, dropping to around $3,300 before recovering slightly.
After nearly two years of dormancy, notorious hacker Blockchain Bandit, who stole 51,000 ETH coins by just guessing weak private keys, has recently moved funds to another wallet. The hacker transferred all of his ETH
ETH
$3 432
24h volatility:
3.3%
Market cap:
$413.69 B
Vol. 24h:
$25.74 B
holdings from 10 wallet addresses to the multi-signature address “0xC45…1D542”, as reported by ZachXBT.
On Monday, December 30, the hacker transferred the funds in mostly 5,000 Ether batches. Before this activity, the stolen funds remained inactive across 10 wallet addresses since January 21, 2023, when the 51,000 Ether was last transferred. During that period, the hacker also moved 470 Bitcoins.
Back in 2019, crypto hackers Blockchain Bandit managed to amass a massive 45,000 Ether (ETH) by successfully guessing weak private keys, as per the report from Independent Security Evaluators. Although guessing a private key is considered statistically improbable, the hacker successfully uncovered 732 private keys associated with 49,060 transactions.
To identify the random private keys, the hacker used brute force by exploiting faulty code and flawed random number generators using a method dubbed “Ethercombing”. According to ZachXBT, this form of “programmatic theft” has been ongoing since 2016, with the most significant exploits occurring in 2018.
Although the identity of the Blockchain Bandit remains unknown, crypto security analyst Adrian Bednarek has previously speculated that a state actor, such as North Korea, could be responsible for the thefts.
Interestingly, this Ethereum movement comes along with the ETH price drop earlier today to $3,300 levels. As of press time, ETH price is trading 1.04% down at $3,377.26 with a market cap of $406 billion with daily trading volumes soaring 42% to $25.34 billion.
Ethereum (ETH) Price Action Ahead
The world’s second-largest cryptocurrency Ethereum (ETH) has been experiencing some volatility recently dipping all the way to $3,300 in the last 24 hours, before bouncing back to $3,400 once again.
Ethereum is on track to close December with a loss of approximately 10%, following a more hawkish-than-expected Federal Reserve meeting mid-month that sparked a broad market sell-off. The altcoin has lost momentum taking a dip below its 21-day and 50-day moving averages. However, the ETH price continues to find solid support around the $3,000 mark, above its 200-day moving average.
if $ETH were to go up like last cycle compared to $BTC, ETH/BTC would be at 0.146.
At the current price of $BTC this would result in $15.2k per $ETH.
If we assume $BTC will go up to at least 150k, $ETH could go as high as $21.9k just by performing like last cycle.
— Mat 🦇🔊 (@materkel) December 29, 2024
Going into 2025, crypto market analysts continue to remain hopeful for Ethereum expecting it to hit fresh all-time highs. Some market analysts also predict that ETH could scale all the way to $10,000-$15,000 by mid-2025.
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Bhushan is a FinTech enthusiast and holds a good flair in understanding financial markets. His interest in economics and finance draw his attention towards the new emerging Blockchain Technology and Cryptocurrency markets. He is continuously in a learning process and keeps himself motivated by sharing his acquired knowledge. In free time he reads thriller fictions novels and sometimes explore his culinary skills.
