The U.S. Government Transfers Bitcoin from Confiscated Wallets
The U.S. government has reportedly transferred Bitcoin (BTC) from two wallets that contained funds confiscated in the 2016 Bitfinex hack. On February 28, U.S. authorities made four transactions, transferring nearly a billion dollars worth of Bitcoin, according to Arkham Intelligence.
Details of the Transactions:
- In the first transaction, the wallet transferred 1 BTC worth $60,200 at the time.
- The U.S. government then moved another 2,817 BTC worth approximately $172.74 million to unknown addresses.
- About an hour later, from another wallet, the government transferred 0.01 BTC and 12,267 BTC, worth about $748.46 million, in two separate transactions.
This brought the total volume to approximately $922 million at the time of transfer.
The U.S. Government as a Bitcoin Whale:
The U.S. government is considered one of the largest Bitcoin whales, with over 200,000 BTC on its balance sheet, valued at $12.44 billion. Out of this amount, approximately 94,600 BTC are assets confiscated due to the Bitfinex platform hack, according to 21.co.
The Bitfinex Hack:
In 2016, hackers stole almost 120,000 BTC during the Bitfinex hack. In February 2019, U.S. authorities returned more than 27,000 BTC to the exchange and converted them into dollars to compensate holders of Recovery Right Token (RRT) tokens.
Ilya Lichtenstein was behind the attack and admitted to infiltrating Bitfinex’s security systems over an extended period. The motive behind Lichtenstein’s decision to target Bitfinex in 2016 was reportedly linked to the challenges he faced with his technology startup in San Francisco.
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