The recent United States Hack has breached self-custody security, with reports indicating that US government Bitcoin has been compromised, leading to the suspicious movement of over $20 million in cryptocurrency from the government’s crypto wallet.
For years, the crypto space has faced challenges with hackers. This issue is tied to the very features offered by Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies: autonomy, liberation, and ownership.
All transactions are publicly visible, and users can easily make detrimental errors.
Despite the robust judicial system in the United States and ongoing efforts to track down hackers, scammers, and other nefarious actors, it appears one of its wallets may be compromised.
As of now, there’s no official confirmation that the formidable United States—encompassing the FBI, DoJ, and other efficient agencies—has definitively lost funds, particularly of this magnitude.
Has the United States Government Lost $20 Million?
Nevertheless, Arkham data reveals that an alarming amount exceeding $20 million in cryptocurrency has been transferred suspiciously, likely aimed at laundering.
If verified, this incident would be highly embarrassing for the government, particularly for its agencies like the FBI.
As per findings from the blockchain intelligence firm, the transfer originated from the address “0x3486.”
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Currently, it remains unverified whether the source address is controlled by an individual or a group.
What is established is that this address transferred $20 million worth of various assets, which included USDC, USDT, aUSDC (interest-accruing USDC on Aave—a lending platform), and ETH, all from the government-managed wallet “0xc9E6E5” within the past 24 hours.
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Breaking it down, the suspected hacker moved more than $13 million in aUSDC. Additionally, the address transferred $5.45 million in USDC, $1.1 million in USDT, and over $446,000 in ETH.
Laundering of US Government Crypto Assets
The receiving address has shown high activity following the transfer.
Significant transactions include converting USDC to ETH via 1Inch, an aggregating DEX.
Subsequently, the ETH was divided into blocks of $40,000, with most sent to a “nested exchange” which obtains liquidity from Binance. Furthermore, another $80,000 in ETH has been dispatched to several wallets.
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Interestingly, the hacker’s wallet holds over $13 million in USDC, along with small amounts of BNB, ETH, and other cryptocurrencies.
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On another front, the United States government is a major Bitcoin holder, managing over $13.7 billion worth of Bitcoin and more than $120 million in ETH.
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Reviewing historical on-chain transactions, it appears that the United States government wallet last executed significant transfers five months ago, when it received $2 million from Shakeeb Ahmed, a previous Amazon security engineer.
Bitfinex Hack: How a Couple Embezzled $4.5Bn
The funds in question were confiscated from Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, a couple residing in New York City who admitted to hacking and laundering over 120,000 BTC from Bitfinex.
Law enforcement managed to recover more than 108,000 BTC from the stolen assets following an extensive multi-year investigation conducted by the FBI, HSI, and other organizations.
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