Two wallets associated with the U.S. government and linked to the notorious Bitfinex hack have transferred nearly $1 billion worth of Bitcoin to unidentified addresses.
The first of these transactions involved a wallet identified by blockchain-data firm Arkham Intelligence as containing seized funds from the Bitfinex hacker, on behalf of the U.S. government.
This wallet initiated a transfer of 1 BTC, followed by an additional 2,817 BTC about thirty minutes later, emptying the wallet of roughly $173 million worth of Bitcoin.
Shortly after, another wallet containing approximately 12,300 BTC made a similar move, initially transferring 0.01 BTC and then the remainder shortly after, amounting to around $750 million.
These movements combined resulted in a total of approximately $923 million worth of Bitcoin being transferred from the two wallets, according to the current market price of the leading cryptocurrency.
The Justice Department has not provided comments on the specific motives behind these transfers, but an official confirmed they were part of legitimate law enforcement activities.
These transactions occurred on a particularly volatile trading day for Bitcoin, which saw its price surpass $60,000 for the first time since November 2021, reaching over $64,000 before dropping to just above $59,000. At the time of reporting, Bitcoin's trading price stood just above $60,000, with its all-time high reaching around $69,000 in late 2021.
Arkham Intelligence reports that another U.S. government wallet still holds approximately 94,600 BTC of seized Bitfinex hacker funds, valued at roughly $5.79 billion at current prices.
The Bitfinex hack remains one of the cryptocurrency industry's most infamous heists, further highlighted by the involvement of Heather "Razzlekhan" Morgan and Ilya Lichtenstein, who were charged in connection with the case.
In August, a Justice Department press release revealed that the government had seized about 95,000 stolen Bitcoin, valued at approximately $3.6 billion at the time of seizure, from crypto wallets under the control of the defendants.
This recent movement of Bitcoin from government-seized wallets marks a significant moment in the ongoing saga of the Bitfinex hack and its repercussions within the cryptocurrency market.
