Hackers allegedly steal $20 million in crypto from U.S. government wallets

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We’ve got a wild story brewing in the crypto world, as it seems that an anonymous hacker—or perhaps a group of them—has pulled off a heist, making off with $20 million in various cryptocurrencies from U.S. government wallets.

And guess what? They’re already trying to launder the money.

The American Job

This whole mess started when hackers took advantage of funds that were originally seized by law enforcement from Bitfinex hackers, totaling around $3.6 billion.

Arkham Intelligence shared that the theft was first spotted when they noticed some unexpected movements in the government’s crypto stash.

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“US government-linked address appears to have been compromised for $20 million. We believe the attacker has already begun laundering the proceeds through suspicious addresses linked to a money laundering service.”

Cash is king

Crypto investigator ZachXBT, who recently solved another money laundering case, backed up Arkham’s findings, and he pointed out that the stolen funds quickly moved to several instant exchanges, likely so the hacker could cash out fast.

The stolen assets include USDC, USDT, aUSDC, and ETH, basically a buffet of popular cryptocurrencies.

Let’s not forget that the U.S. government is one of the biggest holders of Bitcoin and other crypto assets thanks to years of seizing criminal assets.

In the past, even whispers about a potential sell-off have sent shockwaves through the market. Here we go.

If these hackers can breach government security and successfully launder their loot, it raises some pretty serious red flags.

Fallout

Arkham also noted that these stolen assets came from the $3.6 billion seized in connection with Bitfinex, which adds another layer of complexity to the situation.

Just this month, the U.S. government has been working on a plan to help victims recover their assets from that 2016 hack.

They’ve set up a process for defrauded users and are pushing the hackers to give up any claims to those funds.

As it stands, we still don’t know who these attackers are or how they managed to exploit this wallet vulnerability.

Plus, there hasn’t been any official confirmation from the U.S. government about this incident yet. So there will be more in this story, that’s sure.

Have you read it yet? South Korea wants to monitor cross-border crypto activity

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