Classic like a Hollywood script, a hacker who recently made away with $20 million worth of crypto from a wallet belonging to the U.S. government was reported to have returned almost all the stolen funds within the space of one day.
What Went Down?
This started when blockchain analysis company Arkham Intelligence saw something fishy. Recently, a government wallet swelled ETH, Ethereum and stablecoins to an “attacker” address worth $20 million.
But the surprise came following that. The hacker took the trouble and sent $19.3 million right back to the exchange, which prompted many people to question why the hacker did this. They say the plot takes an unexpected turn and they are not wrong. Perhaps breaking into a government-linked wallet is not as exciting as it is when you notice the U.S government is tracking your every online activity.
How in the world did the rest of the money go?
But it was not all the money that was returned to the people. Some of it had already been sent to instant exchanges like Switchain, HitBTC and N Exchange, as pointed out by blockchain investigator ZachXBT. These tokens are most probably washed in the enormous and vast, let alone highly fluid, space of crypto exchange.
A Blast from the Past
What increases interest in this case is the fact that the wallet that was targeted contained money from the 2016 Bitfinex hack. At that time, Bitfinex had lost 119,754 Bitcoin, equivalent to approximately $70 million in the largest hacks in history. Fast forward to today, and the value of those Bitcoins have skyrocketed, making this story even much more interesting.
Ilya Lichtenstein, who was responsible for that old Bitfinex heist, claimed that he achieved it using some sophisticated means. Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan were apprehended in 2022; the DOJ called it the biggest crypto bust ever.
Crypto Market Update
On the other hand and as is typical of the crypto market, things are ever volatile. Weekly we see Bitcoin slump 0.7% in the last one day and is currently trading at $67,130. Ethereum was also trading lower and decreased by 2.1% to $2,470. Even the world of computer applications appears to have its moments of high and low swings!
Why did the hacker return the money?
So, what made the hacker agree to give out the crypto? There are some hypotheses which are being hypothesized out there. Perhaps they woke up one day and remembered that provoking a government-linked wallet only invites the bear. Or maybe the hacker just didn’t feel like going through the trouble of laundering millions through a plethora of different exchanges.
Final Thoughts
To sum up, this story demonstrates that in the crypto space, where everything is quite new, literally anything is possible. Yesterday $20 million was taken; today most of it is recovered in what can be described as an almost casual manner: as if it was a pen that was borrowed and never returned. While the hacker’s motives remain a mystery, one thing is clear: screwing around with government wallets it’s an adventure.
While one can easily imagine the reasons for their actions ranging from simple fear of being caught to the hacker developing a moral conscience and regretting their actions, what followed was truly interesting – they decided to return the money. But in the rugged economy of cryptocurrencies that’s par for the game.
