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US government may fall victim to $20 million crypto hack

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The US government's crypto assets were moved to a new wallet amid hack suspicions.

Hacker in a dark hoodie working on a laptop, suggesting potential cybercrime or security breach related to cryptocurrency.

Key Takeaways

  • Over $20 million in Ethereum and stablecoins were stolen from a US government-controlled wallet.
  • The theft is connected to the wallet involved in the 2016 Bitfinex hack.

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The US government may have suffered a $20 million exploit that targeted its crypto wallet on October 24, according to reports from Arkham and blockchain sleuth ZachXBT.

The incident was first flagged earlier today after a US government-linked address, which had been dormant for eight months, made some suspicious transfers.

According to data tracked by Arkham, initially, $1.25 million in USDT and $5.5 million in USDC were moved from the DeFi platform Aave. Subsequently, approximately $13.7 million in aUSDC and $446,000 in Ethereum were transferred to a newly established wallet. These funds had previously been seized by US authorities during the investigation of the Bitfinex hack.

Further movements included about $320,000 in Ethereum sent to various exchanges and $80,000 distributed to several smaller wallets. Investigations are ongoing to trace the laundered funds and assess the full extent of the breach. The US government has yet to release an official statement regarding this incident.

Arkham noted that the attacker had begun selling these assets for ETH and may have been laundering the proceeds through various suspicious addresses. At the time of reporting, US authorities still hold over $14 billion in total.

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