According to recent reports, some Ethereum (ETH) and stETH transactions done between May and June 2022 using wallets connected to FTX resulted in a depeg and ultimately contributed to the failure of multiple cryptocurrency projects.
The well-known platform Peck Shield, which specializes in blockchain investigations, audits, and security, found these.
In a recent tweet, Peck Shield revealed three unidentified wallets linked to the now-defunct FTX exchange. The three wallets moved significant sums of Ethereum (ETH) and stETH from other wallets between May and June, according to the analysis.
#PeckShieldAlert We have detected 3 unknown wallets that withdrew 63,860 $stETH (～$90M) from FTX, swapped it for $ETH, and then transferred to FTX when the stETH/ETH price dropped to a monthly low during May & June. It appears that SBF may have been related to these transactions pic.twitter.com/VFrdZGgopk
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) January 30, 2023
The wallets withdrew 63,860 stETH, or almost $90 million, out of the defunct FTX exchange and converted it to Ethereum (ETH). When the “stETH/ETH price” fell to a monthly low in May and June, the three wallets then exchanged the $stETH for ETH and afterward transferred the Ethereum (ETH) back to FTX.
SBF and Alameda tied to the operation
It’s worth noting that the swap and transfer activities are reportedly being carried out by Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange network.
“It appears that SBF may have been related to these transactions,” Peck Shield affirmed.
According to Peck Shield’s charts, the money was transferred from one wallet and divided into two, one holding 22,855 stETH ($35.6 million) and the other 19,998 stETH ($31.1 million).
When the stETH/ETH ratio fell to 0.971 on May 13, wallet 0x6b92 withdrew around 15k stETH for a total of $23.4 million. Consequently, this wallet converted the stETH back to the typical amount of ETH, which is around 14,300.
Wallets “0x1b23” and “0x2e85” later withdrew 49,000 stETH. According to Peck Shield, the two withdrew STETH worth $66 million. The wallets exchanged the stETH, yielding slightly more than 42,000 ETH.
Conor Grogan, head of product at Coinbase, has reported more information that suggests the withdrawals and exchanges of staked ETH and stETH were supposedly the main reason why certain notable crypto platforms, such as Three Arrows Capital and the Celsius network, failed.
On 6/8/22, 2 mystery wallets withdrew $75M+ of stETH from FTX
They then proceeded to market-sell everything, kicking off a "de-peg" event seen as one of the contributing factors to Celsius's bankrun and the demise of 3AC
We know today that SBF/Alameda was behind these sales pic.twitter.com/nRv9ev4VoM
— Conor (@jconorgrogan) January 29, 2023
He also stated that Alameda or Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) was responsible for these unexpected sales.
Conor Gorgan also mentioned two transactions on July 8th worth 22.8K and 19.9K stETH. Following the transactions, a stETH depeg was triggered, leading to some severe market stress.
