Ethereum

aUSDC

Arkham

ZachXBT

Coin

U.S. government crypto wallets may be compromised, as observers alerted the public to suspicious on-chain transactions.
According to <a href="https://x.com/ArkhamIntel/status/1849537146861859120" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Arkham</a>, unknown hackers have possibly stolen $20 million in seized cryptocurrencies like Ethereum (<a href="https://crypto.news/price/ethereum/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">ETH</a>), Tether (<a href="https://crypto.news/price/tether/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">USDT</a>), and Circle USD Coin (<a href="https://crypto.news/price/usd-coin/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">USDC</a>) from U.S. government-controlled addresses.
The developing story, corroborated by on-chain sleuth ZachXBT on Telegram, might even involve funds confiscated from the Bitfinex hackers. Arkham stated that address 0xc9E received seized assets from at least one wallet mentioned in the Bitfinex court case documents.
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter">
 <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
 𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: 𝗨𝗦 𝗚𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 $𝟮𝟬𝗠. $20M in USDC, USDT, aUSDC and ETH has been suspiciously moved from a USG-linked address 0xc9E6E51C7dA9FF1198fdC5b3369EfeDA9b19C34c to… <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://t.co/UXn1atE1Wx" target="_blank">pic.twitter.com/UXn1atE1Wx</a>— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) <a href="https://twitter.com/ArkhamIntel/status/1849537146861859120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">October 24, 2024</a>
 </blockquote>
 <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 </div>
</figure>
Bitfinex was hacked in 2016 by Ilya Lichtenstein and his rapper partner Heather Morgan, AKA Razzlekhan. The duo successfully stole about $8 billion in Bitcoin (<a href="https://crypto.news/price/bitcoin/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">BTC</a>) from the crypto exchange.&nbsp;Nearly a decade later, federal prosecutors <a href="https://crypto.news/us-prosecutors-push-for-5-year-prison-sentence-for-bitfinex-hack-mastermind/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">asked</a> for a five-year sentence to be issued to Lichtenstein.
You might also like: <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://crypto.news/us-prosecutors-push-for-5-year-prison-sentence-for-bitfinex-hack-mastermind/"> US prosecutors push for 5 year prison sentence for Bitfinex-hack mastermind </a>
Transactions suggest the hackers started selling and laundering the funds after breaking into U.S. government wallets, Arkham said in its Oct. 24 post about the suspicious activity.
<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
 The funds were moved to wallet 0x348 which has begun selling the funds to ETH. We believe the attacker has already begun laundering the proceeds through suspicious addresses linked to a money laundering service.
 Arkham
</blockquote>
Before the blockchain analytics provider flagged the U.S. government transactions, Arkham noted that government wallets withdrew over $6.5 million in crypto from decentralized finance lender Aave. Etherscan data also showed that one U.S. government address paid up to $1,000 in Ethereum fees to move about $100,000 in cryptocurrencies.
This is a developing story.
Read more: <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://crypto.news/kraken-to-launch-blockchain-network-in-2025/"> Kraken to launch blockchain network in 2025 </a>

Hackers apparently steal $20m from US government wallets

crypto.news

Other articles published on Oct 24, 2024

BRICS Crypto News: Russia Proposes Bitcoin for Sanctions Bypass

XRP Prepares For Full Recovery Movement, New XRP ATH Could Appear Sooner Than Expected

Vitalik Buterin Aims for Sub-2 Second Transfers Between Chains in Ethereum’s Future

Why Bitcoin Price is Up Today? Whale Buying, Fed Report & More!

Will Chainlink, Swift Partnership Propel LINK To $20?

Kraken, the World's Oldest Cryptocurrency Exchange, Announces It Will Launch Its Own Network on E...

Join our free newsletter for daily crypto updates!