Hundreds of millions of pounds worth of Bitcoin, stolen during a 2016 hack of exchange Bitfinex, have been moved by attackers.

The transaction was spotted today by Twitter account Whale Alert, which announced bad actors had transferred 10,000 bitcoins worth more than $383m to an unknown wallet during Asian trading hours. In August 2016 crypto exchange Bitfinex was the victim of a high profile hack which saw the exchange lose 119,756 BTC of user funds, worth £3.4bn at today’s prices. The assets transferred today represent just over eight per cent of the total BTC lost.

Little over four per cent of the stolen funds have been cashed in for fiat, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic which is mapping the funds. The majority of the stolen assets have not been moved because they were blacklisted and cannot be swapped on a centralised exchange.

The recent bull run has prompted movement between asset addresses. Around $100m worth of bitcoin was moved in November 2020 while in April 2021, a further $774m worth of coins was shifted.

The high profile hack is not the only controversy to have cast a shadow over Bitfinex. In February 2021, the crypto exchange agreed to jointly pay $18.5m with Tether as part of a settlement with the New York attorney general’s office, which accused the firms of covering up client losses totalling $850m.

Bitcoin is up 3.7 per cent today, trading above $38,000 at the time of writing.