US DOJ starts probing $400M FTX hack

The US Department of Justice has launched an investigation into a major FTX hack during the exchange’s final days of operation. FTX reported a $400 million loss, but the prosecutors think there may be more to it.

Suspicions are reaching the climax regarding a controversial FTX hack that happened during the exchange’s meltdown. The former CEO, Sam Bankman Fried, said he suspected several people of being involved in the undertaking. 

Now, experts suggest that digital fingerprints left behind by the attackers point to a calculated inside job, prompting the US DOJ to look into it. The prosecutors are taking this task amid an ongoing case against the FTX Founder and Ex-CEO Sam Bankman Fried, who faces charges of defrauding the US and misusing customer funds.

The US DOJ couldn’t be very far from the truth, as multiple FTX employees had also reported suspicious outflows from the exchange between Nov. 11 and Nov. 12. They leaked the information to Twitter user ZachXBT who posted it, causing mixed reactions from the community members.

An hour after the transactions were done, FTX General Counsel Ryne Miller tweeted that the exchange looked into abnormalities in wallet movements. The FTX Telegram support channel also pinned a message explaining that the company had been hacked and FTX applications became malware. They directed customers to delete them and not to head to the FTX official website as it would download trojans into their systems.

The bankruptcy CEO, John Ray III, also confirmed the hack via Twitter on Nov 12. He posted the confirmation under Miller’s tweet and added that the team was in contact with law enforcement.

Although the US prosecutors are adamant about pursuing this case, they will separate it from Bankman-Fried’s one to give independence of results. Experts have also flagged this development as an insider job, as the hacker accessed a series of assets from the FTX and FTX US websites alongside multiple cold wallets.