Breaking: U.S. Justice Department confiscates over $1 billion in Bitcoin tied to Silk Road
|- Around $1 billion worth of Bitcoin has been tied to the Silk Road marketplace after 69,369 were moved for the first time since April 2015.
- The U.S. is suing for the forfeiture of funds associated with the Silk Road website which was taken down in 2013.
On November, 3 it was reported that 69,369 were being moved out of the wallet address '1HQ3Go3ggs8pFnXuHVHRytPCq5fGG8Hbhx', the fourth-largest Bitcoin wallet, for the first time since April 2015.
Get this - there is a Bitcoin wallet with 69,000 Bitcoins ($693,207,618) that is being passed around between hackers/crackers for the past 2 years for the purpose of cracking the password, no success so far.
— Alon Gal (Under the Breach) (@UnderTheBreach) September 8, 2020
I have the wallet, @Google hook me up with a quantum computer please. pic.twitter.com/GcIqH7kN98
Get this - there is a Bitcoin wallet with 69,000 Bitcoins ($693,207,618) that is being passed around between hackers/crackers for the past 2 years for the purpose of cracking the password, no success so far.
— Alon Gal (Under the Breach) (@UnderTheBreach) September 8, 2020
I have the wallet, @Google hook me up with a quantum computer please. pic.twitter.com/GcIqH7kN98
It seems that the wallet was a bounty for hackers and crackers in the past two years as many have attempted to recover the funds inside. People were speculating that a hacker actually got access to the wallet and now the funds have been associated with the Silk Road incident.
It is now known that indeed a hacker got access to the wallet and authorities were forced to seize the funds. This could be a big factor in the recent price spike of Bitcoin towards $15,300. U.S. Attorney David Anderson of the Northern District of California stated:
Silk Road was the most notorious online criminal marketplace of its day, The successful prosecution of Silk Road’s founder in 2015 left open a billion-dollar question. Where did the money go?
The seizure of the 69,369 Bitcoins is currently temporary as the U.S. needs to provide its case before a judge. Nonetheless, it means that a large sum of Bitcoin is out of the market, further increasing buying pressure for the digital asset.
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