US Govt Linked Crypto Wallet Hacked, $20M Worth Stablecoins, ETH Drained

A crypto wallet address linked to the US government, which held Bitfinex seized funds, was reportedly hacked on Thursday for $20 million.

Per blockchain intelligence firm Arkham, hackers drained $20 million worth of Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), aUSDC and Ethereum (ETH).

𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: 𝗨𝗦 𝗚𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 $𝟮𝟬𝗠.

$20M in USDC, USDT, aUSDC and ETH has been suspiciously moved from a USG-linked address 0xc9E6E51C7dA9FF1198fdC5b3369EfeDA9b19C34c to… pic.twitter.com/UXn1atE1Wx

— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) October 24, 2024

The hacker converted the stablecoins into ETH and deposited them into multiple addresses labelled “Binance Deposit.” Arkham believes that the hacker has already begun laundering the proceeds via suspicious addresses associated with money laundering services.

Besides, Arkham highlighted that minutes before the transfers, US government pulled $5.4 million out of Aave. “This is their first activity on this address in 8 months.”

ALERT: US GOVERNMENT JUST PULLED $5.4M OUT OF AAVE

This is their first activity on this address in 8 months. pic.twitter.com/zwxDWQmm9B

— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) October 24, 2024

Additionally, the government pulled another $1.12 million Tether (USDT) out of Aave.

Further, the pseudonymous blockchain sleuth ZachXBT replied to Arkham that the hack appeared “nefarious.” The sleuth further noted that the funds flow is a result of “theft.”

Bitfinex Seized Funds Hacked

In 2016, a hacker duo stole 120,000 Bitcoin (BTC), currently worth approximately $8.2 billion. The masterminds behind the hack – Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan – face sentencing this November.

US law enforcement officials seized the stolen crypto assets, which the United States Department of Justice considered the largest crypto seizure at the time.

Further, investigators flagged that the hacker wallet that received millions of dollars from government-linked funds apparently used 1inch, an exchange aggregator, to swap stablecoins for Ethereum.

ZachXBT flagged that perpetrators then shuffled Ethereum in $40,000 chunks to a deposit address for the crypto exchange Binance. However, in another comment, the sleuth clarified that it was not Binance, but “a nested exchange which uses Binance for liquidity.”