The Arkham Intel Exchange, a platform that has stirred controversy in the cryptocurrency community, has made its first bounty payment to two investigators who discovered evidence of wallets associated with Do Kwon, the former CEO of Terraform Labs, the firm behind the Luna cryptocurrency. Despite facing criticism since its inception on July 10, 2023, the platform has remained active and is already making significant strides in the industry.
The announcement of the bounty was made on Arkham Inter’s official X account:
The Arkham Intel Exchange now has its first approved submission: new evidence of wallets owned by Do Kwon / Terraform Labs.
— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) July 24, 2023
An anonymous on-chain sleuth and @ErgoBTC were the successful bounty hunters. The new labels are available for all to track here: https://t.co/GT9dCGU5q6 pic.twitter.com/0QruCFQ4OS
The investigators, one of whom chose to remain anonymous, and the other known as Ergo, an associate of the analysis platform OXT Research, were successful in their submission. Their findings earned them a bounty of 9,519.2625 Arkham (ARKM), equivalent to about $5,000 at the time. It was speculated by Ergo that the data they uncovered would cast doubt on Terra’s public claim that it uses only one Luna Foundation Guard wallet, which is said to contain 313 Bitcoin.
The Arkham Intel Exchange currently has 26 bounty tasks listed, with rewards ranging from 1,000 to 100,000 ARKM ($500 to $50,000). The most substantial bounty, 100,000 ARKM, is allocated for the investigation of a reported hack by FTX that allegedly resulted in a loss exceeding $415 million in cryptocurrency during the FTX crash in November 2022.
Upon successful completion of a bounty task, the reward is given to the bounty hunters, while the information unearthed is retained by the bounty poster for a period of 90 days. After this period, the information is shared with the broader Arkham community. This aspect of the platform’s operation has raised concerns among some critics, who argue that it could potentially be used to expose the identities of innocent individuals.
Meanwhile, in a development that could potentially pique the interest of Arkham Intel Exchange’s bounty hunters, Whale Alert reported a significant transfer of 3,500 BTC (approximately $102 million) from Bitfinex to an unidentified wallet. The unknown wallet address, 3E3CPTRLjTJe7GQuxMKpwmai2yFbkuGDMV, is a transit address of Bitfinex. This large-scale transaction could potentially become a subject of interest for Arkham Intel Exchange’s bounty hunters, given the platform’s focus on investigating blockchain transactions.
Terraform Labs, previously under the leadership of Do Kwon, found itself in the midst of controversy in 2022 when its algorithmic stablecoin, TerraClassicUSD (USTC), deviated from its peg to the United States dollar. Kwon’s whereabouts remained largely unknown from May 2022 until his arrest in Montenegro in March 2023 for the use of falsified travel documents.
