Hackers May Have Transferred Bitcoins Worth $1 Billion From A Single Wallet
The bitcoin was moved nearly 24 hours ago from an account that hasn¡¯t been active for the past seven years.
Someone has hacked into a mysterious wallet and transferred nearly $1 billion worth in bitcoin. The haul included roughly 69,369 BTC which if you convert into dollars comes around $975 million.
Reuters
The bitcoin was moved nearly 24 hours ago from an account that hasn¡¯t been active for the past seven years. This discovery for the account possessing nearly a billion dollars was made by Alon Gal, co-founder and CTO of security firm Hudson Rock. In the tweet announcing this theft, Anon Gal states, ¡°UNBELIEVABLE - Someone was able to crack the password of the Bitcoin wallet I reported on only a short time ago and spend the $1,000,000,000 that was inside it!¡±
Twitter: @Underthebreach
Gal added, ¡°It was either the person who cracked the password or the original owner who may have noticed the recent articles about his wallet being circulated among hackers. The wallet was considered "dormant" since 2013. Either way, this is pretty interesting.¡±
According to Tom Robinson, co-founder and chief scientist at the blockchain analysis firm Elliptic (in his blog post), this account was the world¡¯s fourth-largest account. Moreover, he feels that the funds actually originated from sales conducted on Silk Road -- an underground market founded by Ross Ulbricht and known for drug peddling, murder for hire and other illegal activities. The account was taken down in 2013 and had been dormant ever since.
Robinson explains, ¡°The movement of these bitcoins today may represent Ulbricht or a Silk Road vendor moving their funds. However, it seems unlikely that Ulbricht would be able to conduct a bitcoin transaction from prison. Alternatively, the encrypted wallet file may have been real, and the password has now been cracked ¡ª allowing the bitcoins to be moved.¡±
Reuters
As of now, no one knows who has nearly a billion dollars in their account as the anonymous nature of bitcoin is doing a good job of keeping his/her identity a secret, at least until FBI¡¯s cryptocurrency forensic experts figure something out.
