Two crypto wallets tagged as holding funds seized by the U.S. government related to the infamous Bitfinex hack have just transferred nearly $1 billion of bitcoin to unidentified addresses.
A wallet that’s one of at least three tagged by the blockchain-data firm Arkham Intelligence as holding seized Bitfinex hacker funds, on behalf of the government, initially transferred 1 BTC around 18:39 UTC (1:39 pm ET). Roughly a half-hour later, the remaining 2,817 BTC in the wallet were sent, leaving the wallet empty. Together they represented about $173 million worth of bitcoin.
Shortly afterward, another wallet, containing about 12,300 BTC, transferred 0.01 BTC to a different unidentified address, according to Arkham, and shortly afterward the remaining BTC were sent. Those transfers represented about $750 million worth, bring the total value of the bitcoin transferred from the two wallets to about $923 million, based on the current price of the leading cryptocurrency.
The motive for the transfers wasn’t clear. The U.S. Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to questions sent via a website for media requests.
The bitcoin moved during a volatile day of trading in the cryptocurrency, with its price hitting $60,000 for the first time since November 2021, then climbing further above $64,000 beforea bruptly plunging to just above $59,000. As of press time it was changing hands just above $60,000. The all-time high price, set in late 2021, was around $69,000.
According to Arkham, there is another U.S. government wallet containing about 94,600 BTC of seized Bitfinex hacker funds, worth roughly $5.79 billion at the current price.
The Bitfinex hack was one of the crypto industry’s most notorious heists, partly due to the colorful social-media posts of Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan, who was charged in the case along with Ilya Lichtenstein.
