Security News > 2020 > November > US govt behind $1 billion Bitcoin transfer of Silk Road funds
The Bitcoin wallet had links to hacker groups and had seen its balance drop from almost $1 billion in cryptocurrency to nothing overnight.
Bitcoin address linked to Silk Road. The funds in Bitcoin wallet 1HQ3Go3ggs8pFnXuHVHRytPCq5fGG8Hbhx have been found to be associated with Silk Road. Silk Road is remembered as one of the most notorious darknet marketplaces that had been shut down in October 2013.
"The successful prosecution of Silk Road's founder in 2015 left open a billion-dollar question. Where did the money go? Today's forfeiture complaint answers this open question at least in part. $1 billion of these criminal proceeds are now in the United States' possession," said U.S. Attorney David Anderson today in a press release.
The agents reviewed 54 transactions that had remained undetected up until this point and all were linked to Silk Road. Results of the investigation indicate, these Bitcoins had been stolen from Silk Road between 2012 and 2013.
Further, the US Attorney's Office and IRS CI agents concluded that the Bitcoins were associated with Individual X who had hacked and acquired these funds from Silk Road. The discovery saw over 69,369 Bitcoins, almost $1bn sitting in the mysterious wallet disappear within a day, after Department of Justice's seizure.