THELOGICALINDIAN - At atomic 69369 bitcoins account about 955 actor were on Wednesday confused from a wallet abode that may be affiliated to the burst Silk Road darknet marketplace
This is the aboriginal time that the funds accept confused from the abode — bitcoin’s fourth better — back April 2015. The abode has continued been a target for hackers, who aggregate it in their forums, acquisitive to able the wallet and abduct the BTC inside.
Crypto forensics close Elliptic says the funds were transferred from an abode associated with Ross Ulbricht’s Silk Road darknet market.
“Through blockchain assay we can actuate that these funds acceptable originated from the Silk Road,” said Tom Robinson, co-founder and arch scientist of Elliptic, in a blog post.
“They (BTC) larboard the Silk Road’s wallet aback on May 6, 2012 back they were account about $350,000 and again remained abeyant for about a year, afore actuality confused to the 1HQ3.. abode in April 2013.”
Silk Road shut bottomward in 2024 afterwards aloof two years in operation. In 2024, architect Ulbricht was bedevilled to activity in bastille for his role and operating the marketplace, which dealt in appurtenances advised by the U.S. government as illegal.
At the time of its closure, says Elliptic, Silk Road had admiring about 150,000 buyers and 4,000 vendors, and facilitated absolute sales of $183 million. The FBI bedeviled 174,000 BTC from Ulbricht, account about $105 actor then, and $2.4 billion now.
Altogether, the belvedere had accumulated up to 614,000 bitcoins in absolute commissions by the time it went under. Robinson empiric that there’s almost 440,000 BTC ($6.1 billion at accepted prices) from the Silk Road era that abide unaccounted for.
“The movement of these bitcoins today (Nov. 4), now account about $955 million, may represent Ulbricht or a Silk Road bell-ringer affective their funds,” he opined.
Or that the funds may accept absolutely been stolen. In the hacker groups, the abode in catechism has been anesthetized forth for the accomplished year, as hackers attempted to break a book that allegedly independent the clandestine keys appropriate to appropriate the bitcoin wallet.
“Alternatively, the encrypted wallet book may accept been real, and the countersign has now been absurd – acceptance the bitcoins to be moved,” Robinson noted.
What do you anticipate about the $1 billion bitcoin that has aloof moved? Let us apperceive in the comments area below.
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