Delio "Millionaire" wallet took $1.26M right before the shutdown of the platform

Anonymous ERC-20 wallet 0xB700b2c01F84D834CAdb4E8Bc83FBED516040dcC has taken out 1.26M USD from Delio ETH Common pool hours before the Korean crypto platform shuts down following Haru Invest

TL;DR:

• A brand new "MILLIONAIRE" wallet has retrieved 719 ETH (1.26M USD) from the Delio ETH Common pool hours before the vault is closed for customers
• 165 ETH have been moved to the Dubai-based ByBit exchange, while almost 554 ETH are still being held by the wallet, with current rough value of 900 000 USD
• There are strong reasons to suspect that the owner of the wallet might have had insider information or been part of Delio
• 10 days after the supposed suspension of withdrawals, two new transactions worth 77 000 USD and 5000 USD were executed by Delio, while Haru Invest has strictly abided by its promise to halt withdrawals
• The wallet "RUNLUCKY" has also withdrawn 250 000 USD from Haru Invest on 13.06.2023, but it's hard to determine whether this was not a lucky customer due to the previous activity of the wallet

Historians have often noted the times of chaos and uncertainty are full with opportunities for market speculators to make profits and certainly this is also the case for a lucky owner of a wallet which we deemed "MILLIONAIRE" (ERC-20 Address: 0xB700b2c01F84D834CAdb4E8Bc83FBED516040dcC).

BitYields has first documented the large monetary flow connections between Korean crypto platforms Delio and Haru Invest, revealing that at least 6-8 million USD have been exchanged on the Ethereum blockchain between the internal operator wallets of both platforms[1].

BitYields is currently preparing an article documenting the shutdown of Haru Invest and is investigating all related entities to the incident.

Today we are sharing with the creditor community of Delio our findings about the last transactions which happened on the ERC-20 blockchain of the company.

13 June 2023: Liquidity crisis after Haru Invest announcement

The morning of 13.06.2023 in South Korea starts literally with a "BANG!" for the ERC-20 wallets of Delio, particularly the "Delio ETH Common pool" (Address: 0xff5E343AA7a5a65265d9F608EBd6aC92a685Bb14). Customers have rushed to withdraw their funds, melting the starting balance of 821 ETH (Editor's note: Roughly 2.5M USD[3]) found in the wallet. Initially the pool handles well, since most of the withdrawals require small amounts.

But soon larger creditors also join the process. Particularly wallet "REFUGEE" (Address: 0x5EbBe80d947ce9Bc405A3C181926A76e73727894[3]) first withdraws 84 ETH, followed by another transaction of 174 ETH after 9 hours (Editor's note: This is totally 258 ETH or roughly 450K USD at the time. It is possible the transaction was split either by the user or the service. See the blue colored transactions in Image 3 for reference[1].). The wallet is a personal customer deposit address in the Korean exchange UpBit[6] and it also has previous legitimate looking interactions with Delio[1].

Unseen wallet withdraws 719 ETH, obliterating liquidity

Once almost half a million dollars is taken away by wallet "REFUGEE", a previously unseen wallet becomes suddenly active. Wallet "MILLIONAIRE" (Address: 0xb700b2c01f84d834cadb4e8bc83fbed516040dcc) appears out of nowhere and first initiates a careful test withdrawal of 0.30 ETH (495 USD), before executing a spectacular 1.26M USD transaction less than 2 hours later (Editor's note: Please refer to the red colored transactions in Image 3[1]).

Sometimes it's strange being a Millionaire...

However, less than a hour after becoming a millionaire, the owner of the ERC-20 address experiences some "transaction executioner's remorse" and transfers back to "Delio ETH Common pool" first 0.00286 ETH (4.72 USD[1]) and then an additional 4.66 ETH (7692 USD)(Editor's note: Please refer to the yellowed colored transactions in Image 3[1]).

Following this we see multiple attempts for the pool to be "loaded with liquidity" again in order to match increasing customer withdrawals demand.

Then, during the next 2 weeks the primary occupation of the owner is transferring over 300 000 USD in several Ethereum chunks to the ByBit exchange, while currently still holding ~900 000 USD under its own control. The wallet has never received any transactions prior 14.06.2023.

Reasonable doubts: There are not many "Millionaires"

We think it is highly unusual for a brand new wallet with no transaction history to be used for receiving and storing such a large sum. However, there is no direct way to prove the identity of the wallet, since it has no prior interaction history. This is why we have decided instead to correlate the size of this transaction with the usual size of existing whale transactions which have happened previously in Delio. We assume that if the wallet owner is indeed a regular customer, who has no insider knowledge, then naturally he should not have a behavior much different than other whales, who have decided randomly to execute withdrawals.

Up until the begining of  2021, we have not found a similar transaction in the wallet "Delio ETH Common pool", except one whale who moved 1587 (2.30M) ETH to the centralized exchange Bithumb on 27 July 2022. However, even in that case, this whale has previously made another deposit to this address.

Therefore, at BitYields we have a reasonable doubt to suspect that wallet "MILLIONAIRE" might be either a customer who acquired insider knowledge, or perhaps a member of the management of Delio, who has withdrawn funds to a safe spot[1]. Of course, it is completely possible that we are wrong in our assumption too.

All suspensions are equal, but some are more equal

It is also disturbing to see that despite Delio publicly announcing that all withdrawals are ultimately suspended[7], two wallets have still received nearly 81 000 USD from the customer asset pool 10 days after the notice of suspension. Yes, indeed there were preliminary announcements that withdrawal would be resumed, however, later it was clarified that there is no specific date for the universal restoration of withdrawals for customers[8].

Haru Invest: Wallet "RUNLUCKY" takes 250 000 USDT on 13.06.2023

In terms of Haru Invest, only one individual wallet, nicknamed "RUNLUCKY" (Address: 0x2c90a9105eB143E07dB50EE9e3cA5b118df6DF3D), has been in heavy suspicion by our team for having access to insider information by taking out 250 435 USDT on 13.06.2023. The money has been since relocated to THORChain, AAVE and RocketPool[1]. However, this wallet has at least had some credible previous activity, such as having received funds from plenty of other exchanges too. We cannot reliably identify whether this was a really lucky customer or somebody with insider information.

Readers can expect further information in our upcoming article for Haru Invest.

Thank you for reading!

If you would like to know how you can earn safely 4-5% monthly on your BTC, ETH, USDT/C, then you might read our review about Crypto4Winners too!

Connect with us!

If you like our work in BitYields, consider getting in touch with us at:

• Telegram Community: https://t.me/bityields
• YouTube: https://youtube.com/@bityields
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bityields

DISCLAIMER: All information in this article is released in bona-fide spirit of investigative journalism and in order to serve public good, bring transparency and assist creditors or officials involved in the case. The team of BitYields reserves its right to modify, remove or expand the published content. Any mistakes or inaccuracies are involuntary and shall be corrected or removed upon notice. The team of BitYields might release some part of the information in exchange for compensation, in order to be able to sustain our research and server hosting costs. No part of the content of this article or website should be considered as a legal, financial or investment advice in any form. Cryptocurrencies and financial products are very volatile and subject to high risk. Always do your own research and proper due diligence.

References:

1. Original research conducted by the team of BitYields.
2. Ethereum blockchain, Address: 0xff5e343aa7a5a65265d9f608ebd6ac92a685bb14 (Nickname: "Delio ETH Common pool"), 14.06.2023: https://etherscan.io/address/0xff5e343aa7a5a65265d9f608ebd6ac92a685bb14
3. Ethereum blockchain, Address: 0x5EbBe80d947ce9Bc405A3C181926A76e73727894 (Nickname: "REFUGEE"), 28.09.2023: https://etherscan.io/address/0xb700b2c01f84d834cadb4e8bc83fbed516040dcc
4. Ethereum blockchain, Address: 0xb700b2c01f84d834cadb4e8bc83fbed516040dcc (Nickname: "MILLIONAIRE"), 28.09.2023: https://etherscan.io/address/0xb700b2c01f84d834cadb4e8bc83fbed516040dcc
5. Ethereum blockchain, Address: 0x2c90a9105eB143E07dB50EE9e3cA5b118df6DF3D (Nickname: "RUNLUCKY"), 28.09.2023: https://etherscan.io/address/0xb700b2c01f84d834cadb4e8bc83fbed516040dcc
6. UpBit, 28.09.2023: https://upbit.com
7. CoinTelegraph, Judith Bannermanquist, South Korean Bitcoin lending platform Delio pauses withdrawals, 14.06.2023: https://cointelegraph.com/news/south-korean-bitcoin-lending-platform-delio-pauses-withdrawals
8. CoinGape, Just-In: Delio CEO Announces Phased Withdrawal Resumption, 17.06.2023: https://coingape.com/just-in-delio-ceo-announces-phased-withdrawal-resumption