A Look at 'Individual X' and the Seized Stash of Silk Road Bitcoins Worth $1 Billion
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A Look at 'Individual X' and the Seized Stash of Silk Road Bitcoins Worth $1 Billion

THELOGICALINDIAN - On November 3 2024 the cryptocurrency association noticed that one of the better addresses captivation 69369 bitcoins from the Silk Road were transferred Afterward the onchain movement the US government appear it had bedeviled the bill from a being they dubbed Individual X The afterward is an indepth attending at what we apperceive about the Silk Road bitcoin abode that was bedeviled by US law administration

This anniversary on acclamation day in the U.S., American law administration admiral bedeviled 69,369 bitcoins account over $1 billion today. The bitcoin abode is a able-bodied accepted abode and news.Bitcoin.com reported on the abode on September 11, 2020. The acumen why our newsdesk looked into the abode is because hackers accept been aggravating to advertise an declared encrypted wallet dat book during the aftermost two years.

The bitcoin abode alleged “1HQ3Go3ggs8pFnXuHVHRytPCq5fGG8Hbhx” or “1HQ3” for short, stemmed from the Silk Road according to blockchain analysis. According to onchain data, 1HQ3 got 69,471 BTC beatific to the abode on April 9, 2013. The funds came from the Silk Road (SR) exchange and abounding of the funds stemmed from the SR bitcoin abode “1BBq.

Between April 2013 and up until the day the abode was seized, alone one ample alteration was sent. 101 BTC (over $1.5M) was beatific to the now-defunct Btc-e barter and afterwards that, the wallet alone independent 69,369 BTC.

Reports appearance that federal law administration bedeviled the funds on November 3 and are gluttonous damage with the courts. They alarm accepting the BTC from a “hacker” and prosecutors alarm the being “Individual X.” The being the government calls Individual X is still a abstruseness to this day and bodies are ambiguous about this person’s accurate identity.

However, the court filing explains that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was complex with the procedure. Law administration admiral additionally assassin third affair blockchain assay board to assay bitcoin affairs accomplished by Silk Road.

“From this review, they empiric 54 affairs that were beatific from bitcoin addresses controlled by Silk Road, two bitcoin addresses accretion 70,411.46 BTC (valued at about $354,000 at the time of transfer),” the cloister filing details.

“According to an analysis conducted by the Criminal Analysis Division of the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, Alone X was the alone who confused the cryptocurrency from Silk Road,” the advocate for United States David L. Anderson wrote.

Anderson added added:

The filing additionally addendum that afterwards the 101 BTC was beatific to BTC-e in 2015, two years after the declared Russian operator, Alexander Vinnik, was accusable for active an actionable money transmitting business and for money laundering.

A cardinal of bitcoiners accept this is how the above-mentioned buyer of abode 1HQ3 was caught, but there’s additionally the aftermost two years of hackers attempting to able the wallet. After the wallet saw the aboriginal alteration in 2013 with 69,471 BTC sent, a abundant cardinal of cryptic letters accept been beatific to the abode as well.

For instance, crypto advocates can advantage accoutrement like note4ever.com, which encodes any bulletin into a account of bitcoin addresses, so addition can advertisement it to an abode of their preference. If addition was to audit the affairs complex with abode 1HQ3, again they would see a cardinal of bright messages.

Even afterwards the federal agents bedeviled the 69,369 bitcoin, letters with addresses like “1BitcoinForPresident42o7777DKkJij” and 1FreeRossF*ckCops77777777777W87XM can be apparent on any blockchain explorer. A abundant cardinal of letters were beatific to 1HQ3 over the years and some bodies accept absolutely approved to acquaint with the owner.

This leads to the massive bulk of advertisements over the aftermost two years that accept claimed to advertise an encrypted dat book acceptance to the 1HQ3 bitcoin address. For example, Alon Gal, the Chief Technology Officer of cybercrime close Hudson Rock tweeted about the abode recently. Google additionally has about 16,700 links tethered to the abode as able-bodied authoritative it actual popular.

Prior to the admiral abduction the bill from the alleged Individual X, the wallet dat book was apparent on barter websites like Satoshidisk.com, and All Private Keys. When news.Bitcoin.com appear on the attempted sales, one armpit was affairs the book for 0.08929505 BTC or $1,050, which was the barter amount at that time.

The 1HQ3 abode may be a abstruseness today, but added clues are currently unraveling and may be appear in the future. So far, this case has appear area $1 billion account of the old Silk Road bitcoins went, but 444,000 BTC is advised still missing from the marketplace’s coffers. Using today’s barter rate, the missing 444k SR BTC is account added than $6.8 billion today.

It will additionally be absolutely absorbing to see whether or not the U.S. government decides to bargain the 69k bitcoin stash, as they accept done abounding times in the past.

What do you anticipate about the bitcoin backing controlled by Individual X? Let us apperceive what you anticipate about this accountable in the comments area below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Blockchair, Elliptic, Twitter,