- $20 million was stolen from a U.S. government wallet containing funds from the 2016 Bitfinex hack.
- Although most of the funds have been returned, some remain unpaid even after being transferred to exchanges.
A US government-controlled cryptocurrency wallet was breached and $20 million was stolen, but most of the funds were mysteriously returned by the attackers yesterday.
Arkham Intelligence, a blockchain analytics platform, has released the following updates.
“Following the hack reported yesterday, a US government address just received $19.3 million less than 24 hours after the initial address compromise.”
The reason behind the return remains speculative, but the exposure from the hack of government-linked wallets may have deterred the attackers from further attempts to launder money.
According to blockchain researcher ZachXBT, the only tokens that remain unpaid are those sent to “instant exchanges such as Switchain, HitBTC, and N Exchange.”
Arkham Intelligence first sounded the alarm on Thursday, tweeting that a known government wallet had suspiciously moved $20 million in Ethereum and stablecoins to an “attacker” address.
Adding to the intrigue, it was revealed that the address held funds seized in the 2016 Bitfinex hack.
In 2016, Bitfinex lost 119,754 Bitcoins worth $70 million at the time due to a massive breach.
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Ilya Lichtenstein later admitted that he used sophisticated tools to access the exchange and orchestrate the attack.
He and his wife Heather Morgan were arrested in 2022, leading to the largest crypto seizure in Justice Department history.
Virtual currency market trends
- Bitcoin is trading at $67,130, down 0.7% in the past 24 hours.
- Ethereum is down 2.1%, trading at $2,470.
