coinculture.com
Recently, two cryptocurrency wallets linked to funds seized by the U.S. government in connection with the well-known Bitfinex hack have transferred close to $1 billion worth of bitcoin to undisclosed addresses.
One of these wallets, identified as holding seized Bitfinex hacker funds by blockchain-data firm Arkham Intelligence on behalf of the government, initiated the transfer of 1 BTC at approximately 18:39 UTC (1:39 pm ET). About thirty minutes later, the remaining 2,817 BTC from the wallet were also sent out, leaving the wallet empty. Combined, these transactions amounted to around $173 million worth of bitcoin.
Subsequently, another wallet containing roughly 12,300 BTC sent 0.01 BTC to a different unidentified address, according to Arkham. Shortly after, the remainder of the BTC were transferred as well. These transactions totaled about $750 million, bringing the total value of bitcoin transferred from the two wallets to approximately $923 million, based on the current price of bitcoin.
The reasons behind these transfers remain unclear, as the U.S. Justice Department did not provide immediate responses to inquiries sent via a media request website.
These bitcoin movements occurred amidst a day of considerable volatility in the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin’s price surged to $60,000 for the first time since November 2021, then surpassed $64,000 before experiencing a sudden drop to just above $59,000. At the time of reporting, it was trading slightly above $60,000. The cryptocurrency’s all-time high, set in late 2021, was approximately $69,000.
Arkham also identified another U.S. government wallet holding about 94,600 BTC seized from the Bitfinex hack, valued at roughly $5.79 billion at the current price.
The Bitfinex hack was one of the most infamous thefts in the crypto industry, partly due to the colourful social media presence of Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan, who, along with Ilya Lichtenstein, was charged in connection with the case. According to a Justice Department press release from August, the government seized approximately 95,000 stolen bitcoins from crypto wallets under the defendants’ control, valued at about $3.6 billion at the time of seizure.