Hackers apparently steal $20m from US government wallets

US government crypto wallets could be compromised as watchdogs warn the public of suspicious on-chain transactions.

According to Arkham, unknown hackers likely stole $20 million worth of seized cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum (ETH), Tether (USDT), and Circle USD Coin (USDC) from addresses controlled by the US government.

The developing story, also confirmed by chain detective ZachXBT on Telegram, may even involve funds seized from Bitfinex hackers. Arkham stated that address 0xc9E received seized assets from at least one wallet mentioned in Bitfinex court documents.

𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: 𝗨𝗦 𝗚𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝗠 𝟮𝟬𝗠.

$20 million USDC, USDT, aUSDC and ETH were moved from address 0xc9E6E51C7dA9FF1198fdC5b3369EfeDA9b19C34c, suspiciously linked to USG, to the following address: pic.twitter.com/UXn1atE1Wx

— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) 24 October 2024

Bitfinex was hacked in 2016 by Ilya Lichtenstein and his rapper partner Heather Morgan, AKA Razzlekhan. The duo successfully stole nearly $8 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC) from the crypto exchange. Nearly a decade later, federal prosecutors requested that Lichtenstein be sentenced to five years in prison.

Arkham wrote in its Oct. 24 post about the suspicious activity that the hackers began selling and laundering funds after breaking into U.S. government wallets, according to transactions.

The funds were moved to wallet 0x348 which started selling the funds into ETH. We believe the attacker began laundering proceeds through suspicious addresses linked to a money laundering service.

arkham

Before blockchain analytics provider flagged US government transactions, Arkham noted that government wallets had withdrawn over $6.5 million in cryptocurrencies from decentralized financial institution Aave. Etherscan data also showed that a US government address paid up to $1,000 in Ethereum fees to move nearly $100,000 worth of the cryptocurrency.

This is an evolving story.