Intruders who broke into a U.S. government digital wallet on October 24th likely stole approximately $19,674,524. However, they got back $19,346,045. As cited by blockchain researchers Arkham and Zack XBT, the attackers withdrew funds amounting to approximately 88% of the total amount stolen within 24 hours of the theft. I don’t understand why attackers would extract stolen funds from the community.
This initially allowed government wallets to be emptied of illegal digital assets seized in past cyber-related crimes, such as the Bitfinex theft. After examining on-chain data, we found that most users who withdrew funds did so in Aave USDC $13,190,300, with the rest in USDC and ETH.
𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: $𝟭𝟵𝗠 𝗨𝗦 𝗚𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝘂𝗿𝗻 𝗲𝗱
Following the hack reported yesterday, $19.3 million was returned to US government addresses less than 24 hours after the initial address compromise.
88% of the compromised USD value is now… https://t.co/F8q6iikBrT pic.twitter.com/Vo7I7ZH9K1
— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) October 25, 2024
Things like this have been making a comeback in a relatively short period of time, and the reasons behind such moves continue to be of great interest within the cryptocurrency fraternity. Some people wonder if it’s even possible to access a U.S. government wallet at all. By contrast, some have questioned whether federal retaliation or the possibility of obtaining bug bounties may have brought them back.
Threats fuel hackers’ tendency to return funds
The hacker’s objectives remain invisible, and this performance strengthens the hacker’s propensity to recover stolen funds if he so desires. Some of these may be due to public pressure, the need to introduce new security measures, or ethical concerns.
However, analysts believe the US government is likely to further investigate the incident. Recently, the US government has stepped up its campaign to combat related financial crimes. Federal prosecutors recently indicted the hackers who attacked Bitfinex and an Alabama man involved in a fake spot offer for a Bitcoin fund.
As the rest of cryptocurrencies continue to move forward on this issue, it is important to note that the security of crypto assets is still poorly defined, even at the corporate level, and those concerned about conflict have reason to avoid it. Shown.
