Exploit Wallet Linked to Multichain Tied to Sam Bankman-Fried’s Bribe to China

An on-chain detective on Twitter has traced wallets involved in the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto assets from Multichain, linking them to the $40 million bribe Sam Bankman-Fried allegedly paid to the Chinese government.

Summary of the Multichain Incident

On May 21, 2023, Multichain CEO Zhaojun was detained by Chinese police and has been unreachable since. Access to the MPC node servers was revoked, leaving all funds and assets under Zhaojun’s control.

The Multichain team cooperated with Zhaojun's family and complied with local regulations, but user assets were subsequently transferred to unknown addresses. Due to a lack of information and funding, Multichain decided to cease operations and users were advised against using its services.

In early July, Multichain reported an unexplained transfer of $126 million in crypto assets.

New Findings on the Exploit Wallet

The primary wallet involved in the Multichain attack, address 0x622e, sent over 1,000 WBTC to a new address, 0x3c74b, within the past 24 hours.

"Total 1023 WBTC transferred. Source: Scopescan"

This new address, 0x3c74, then sold 996.27 WBTC, converting it to $28.8 million USDT.

"Transaction details of WBTC to USDT sale. Source: Scopescan"

The 0x3c74b address subsequently used a Gate.io account for money laundering, utilizing the deposit address 0x9634.

"Fund transfer details to 0x9634. Source: Breadcrumbs"

Tracking the transactions, the deposit address 0x9634 also received funds from 0x24f42, which in turn received large amounts of USDT from address 0x3e4b7 and various CEXs including FTX, Binance, and Gate.io.

What makes this address particularly intriguing is a significant transaction in November 2021, where it received $40 million USDT from FTX.

"Transaction receiving 40 million USDT from FTX. Source: Breadcrumbs"

Previously, it was reported that Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX, was accused of bribing the Chinese government with exactly $40 million. This correlation is remarkably striking.

Legal Update

According to the latest update, the bribery charges have been temporarily postponed as Sam Bankman-Fried's lawyers argued that the charges were added after the initial extradition agreement.

Conclusion

The on-chain data reveals a connection between the Multichain exploit wallet and the $40 million bribe allegedly paid by Sam Bankman-Fried to the Chinese government. The investigation used tools like Scopescan and Breadcrumbs to track these transactions, highlighting the importance of on-chain tools in verifying such information.

This article aims to provide insights into the use of on-chain tools for tracking and verifying crypto transactions.