Key Takeaways
Trackers have identifed $22.28M in Hayes token gross sales, led by 6,400 ETH value about $15.2 million.Wintermute despatched Hayes $2.43M in USDC, possible proceeds from UNI and ZAMA gross sales, per Onchain Lens.Blockscout logged 26 faux “ETH” transfers in his pockets historical past inside 90 minutes of the primary sale.
‘I Dumped It All’
Hayes, the BitMEX co-founder who runs household workplace Maelstrom, didn’t trouble with nuance. “I dumped all of it,” he posted on X earlier on Saturday, saying Maelstrom’s directional e-book took earnings on ETH, ENA, UNI, “and different shitcoins.” His reasoning was simply as blunt, noting:
I feel we gotta go right down to go up. It appears to be like a bit dicey on the market in macro and geopolitical land.” Going to take a seat on the sidelines and look ahead to the all clear sign.
Right here is how the morning unfolded, based mostly on onchain trackers and Blockscout data:
Hayes’s pockets sends 1,600 ETH to a contemporary deposit handle, which forwarded the cash to a Binance sizzling pockets two minutes later. One other 3,200 ETH leaves the identical pockets. A closing 1,600 ETH goes out, bringing the full to six,400 ETH. Lookonchain flags the dump: 6,400 ETH ($15.2 million), 14 million ENA ($2.76 million), 323,000 UNI ($2.24 million), 1.89 million ETHFI ($1.23 million), plus smaller quantities of AERO, PENDLE and ZAMA. Onchain Lens maps the routes, with ENA heading to Binance, UNI and ZAMA to market maker Wintermute, and ETHFI to FalconX. It additionally spots Wintermute sending Hayes 2.426 million USDC. Hayes confirms the offload himself.
The Scammers Present Up
Inside minutes, Hayes’s pockets historical past started filling with transfers he by no means made as Blockscout’s token switch log confirmed 26 transfers of tokens labeled “ETH” between 05:58 and 07:32 UTC, with none of them being actual ether.
The faux tokens spelled “ETH” with look-alike Cyrillic and Greek letters padded with invisible characters, and so they mirrored his actual quantities of 1,600 and three,200 precisely. The vacation spot addresses additionally shared the primary and final 4 characters of his actual counterparties. His real 1,600 ETH went to an handle beginning 0x58F3 and ending Ed8B whereas the decoys began with 0x58f3 and ended with Ed8b.
This course of is now broadly known as “handle poisoning.” Scammers seed a pockets’s historical past with look-alike entries and hope the proprietor copies the incorrect handle on the subsequent switch.
Rip-off Sniffer information cited by Bitcoin.com Information confirmed one sufferer misplaced $12.2 million in January after copying a malicious handle. Months earlier, a dealer misplaced $50 million in USDT the identical means.
Hayes will not be the one goal this week, as a 2014 Ethereum ICO purchaser who moved 1,000 ETH towards Kraken on Oct. 23 obtained zero-value transfers from look-alike addresses inside an hour. Nothing suggests both whale took the bait, with each actual switch going to the supposed handle.
Why Bail Now
The promoting comes amidst a strained macro backdrop as ether is at the moment buying and selling close to $2,370, down about 1% on the day, whereas ENA and UNI every have fallen roughly 5%. Bitcoin’s value has been hovering close to $80,600 after its first day by day shut beneath the 50-day shifting common since August.
Hayes has been souring on elements of the altcoin marketplace for some time, and in an Oct. 16 interview, he stated excessive totally diluted valuation (FDV) tokens “can’t even pump” on Binance anymore, and praised Hyperliquid for returning income to holders.
