Ethereum price increased by nearly 3% despite hackers moving 11,398 Upbit stolen ETH
One of the most popular exchange hacks in 2019 is the Korean Upbit hack, which took place in November, leaving 342,000 ETH (~ $ 50 million) without wings, as AZCoin News reported.
Details of the attack are still limited. Some people think it’s an internal job because the word ‘hack’ is not mentioned in the exchange’s notice. Upbit has promised to reimburse all affected users from the company’s funds.
Since the hack, hackers have repeatedly moved a portion of the stolen ETH with various test methods. After a few weeks to take no action, the hackers started to deliver again. This time, there are five transfers with 11,398 ETH (about $ 1.5 million). Many people predict the move is likely to create a catalyst for some price actions in the Ethereum market.
Upbit stolen ETH continues to move
Whale Alert has reported on ETH transfers, which have been moved from a wallet operated by hackers to the Upbit hack to an unknown wallet.
Source: Twitter
The number of transfers seems insignificant compared to the total amount of ETH stolen, but this transfer is potentially more risky than it looks.
Through the use of the Ethereum Etherscan blockchain explorer discovered that during the 5,000 ETH transfer, small portions (in lots lesser than 25, 50, 100 coins) are being withdrawn to newly-created addresses, then deposited into an exchange wallet.
So far, it appears that some of the stolen funds of Upbit are being sent to at least two exchanges: Bibox, Binance, and others that are still unknown at this time.
Source: Twitter
Ethereum still has millions of dollars involved in hacks in non-exchange wallets.
It seems that the hackers are waiting for the right time to transfer those funds to the exchanges to cash their booty.
The hack and stolen ETH transfers still annoyed many users, so much so that they called ETH a sh*tcoin.
Source: Twitter
How to impact on the Ethereum price?
Hackers sending money to exchanges can only have one of two cases: they are trying to withdraw money from the stolen crypto, or they are trying to convert their assets into another crypto (be it Bitcoin or Monero in this case).
Either way, this means Ethereum will see some selling pressure in the coming days, as some users have predicted.
Source: Twitter
Although $ 1.5 million is not enough to dump the market, it should be noted that there are still thousands of ETH on the market ready to sell-off.
Besides, China’s PlusToken Wallet scam, which also contributed to dumping billions of Bitcoin and Ethereum before, still has tens of millions of ETH remaining ready to be liquidated.
After dumping the Bitcoin price in the past six months, PlusToken’s second-largest cryptocurrency liquidation could cause trouble for this already troubled market.
However, Binance has pledged to work with Upbit and other industry players to ensure all funds hacked to Binance are immediately frozen.
Strong fundamentals
Also, the fundamentals are strong can save the price of ETH.
Throughout 2019, Ethereum witnessed a slight decline compared to the USD trading pair, while very weak against Bitcoin, which has increased a staggering 95% throughout the year.
In the short term, ETH has generated some slight up momentum, which allows it to assert a stable position around $ 130. Its short-term uptrend has occurred after the strong bulls guard it against falling below the $ 120 area.
One surprising factor that doesn’t have a significant impact on ETH price action is the booming DeFi trend, which requires users to lock their ETH on loan platforms in exchange for attractive interest payments.
Nicholas Merten, a popular YouTuber known as DataDash, explained that he believes the strong fundamentals of ETH, along with its low price, are now a great buying opportunity.
Seeing ETH at $130 almost makes my heart race a bit. It shows me unaware the general market is around DeFi.
High-interest lending pools, functioning decentralized exchanges, functioning smart contracts + oracles…
Fundamentals improving + cheaper price = opportunity!
— Nicholas Merten (@Nicholas_Merten) December 30, 2019
An important data point is signaling that cryptocurrencies are currently experiencing significant growth from a fundamental perspective.
Founder Santiment Maksim Balashevich said in a recent post on “Our Network,” explaining that ETH has witnessed strong growth in network activity and new addresses over the past few weeks.
He went on to explain that retail buyers have been actively increasing their ETH holdings over the past year, which is an overwhelming sign of price appreciation.
“In 2019, retail owners (addresses 0.001 – 10 ETH) have increased their cumulative balances to 195k ETH, an increase of 6.63% since January 1.”
At the moment, there is no sign that the price is affected by the stolen ETH transfer of hackers. Not only did the ETH price not decrease, but it also increased by more than 2% and was trading at $ 135 at the time of writing.
ETH/USD chart. Source: Trading View
Disclaimer: This is not trading advice. Investors should research carefully before making a decision. We are not responsible for your investment decisions.
Read more:
- Hackers Are Distributing ETH Stolen From UpBit To Different Wallet Addresses
- Losing 342,000 ETH – Upbit Became The Latest Hacking Victim In Crypto Industry 2019