Arkham Intelligence, a crypto-tracking company, has alerted major thefts in the United States. According to its tracking data, the U.S. government’s crypto wallet, which accounted for a portion of assets seized in Bitfinex Hack in 2016, has been compromised by an unknown hacker. Arkham reported that the wallet had stolen about $20 million (about Rs 16.8 billion).
Less than a week ago, the alleged hacker-involved assets were being transferred to an activated crypto wallet. Media reports state that the wallet’s address begins at “0x348”.
According to the Arkham website tracking the set of U.S. government wallets, hackers executed four transactions to obtain stolen funds. The largest transaction involves AUSDC tokens worth US$13.7 million (approximately Rs 11.5 crore). AUSDC tokens are interest assets that represent USDC deposited in the AAVE loan market.
In the other three deals, the hackers managed to snap up US$5.5 million (about Rs 46 crore) of USDC, a tether worth US$1.25 million (about Rs 10 crore) and a $446,000 (about Rs 327 crore) Ethereeum Sokens.
“We believe that attackers have begun to launder money through suspicious addresses related to money laundering services,” the on-chain analytics platform posted details about the incident on X.
𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: 𝗨𝗦𝗚𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿$𝟮𝟬𝗠.
$20 million USDC, USDT, AUSDC and ETH have been suspected of transferring from USG hook address 0xC9E6E51C79DA9FF1198FDC5B33699B19B19C34C to… pic.twitter.com/uxn1ate1wx
-Arkham (@arkhamintel) October 24, 2024
Members of the crypto community, including crypto commentator on X and scam investigator Zachxbt, are tracking the flow of funds stolen from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) wallet. The funds appear to be moving across multiple platforms, including exchanges for the summary of 1-inch and two-link-related platforms.
Funds will be exchanged immediately and look evil
– zachxbt (@zachxbt) October 24, 2024
The Justice Department has not issued a public statement on this situation. It is also unknown whether legal proceedings have been filed against this incident.
In recent weeks, U.S. authorities have repeatedly warned the global crypto community that the number of hackers and scams involved in the industry has increased. Despite being vigilant, it is shocking that crypto wallets controlled by the U.S. government were violated by hackers.
