A password-protected Bitcoin wallet with almost $1 billion in cryptocurrency has just been emptied out.
Mystery surrounds this suspicious transaction and the party who finally managed to cash out the big fat amount.
Was it the owner themselves, or did someone crack this wallet?
Bitcoins withdrawn from wallet in a day
As can be observed below, the Bitcoin wallet, identified by address 1HQ3Go3ggs8pFnXuHVHRytPCq5fGG8Hbhx has had a major transaction around this Election Day.
On November 3rd, 2020 it had contained 69369.16628020 Bitcoins, which is roughly equal to $957 million.
Overnight, the wallet balance mysteriously fell to a mere $1.38 after an entity cashed out the huge amount.
Provided the somewhat anonymous nature of blockchain transactions, it is hard to know just yet who is the beneficiary of this sum of money.
The incident was reported by Alon Gal, co-founder and CTO of Hudson Rock.
On seeing the astonishing transaction, Gal tweeted:
"UNBELIEVABLE - Someone was able to crack the password of the Bitcoin wallet I reported on only a short time ago and spend the $1,000,000,000 that was inside it!"
Wallet circulating among hackers since 2015
This wallet draws attention particularly due to its association with hackers.
Gal had been keeping tabs on this Bitcoin address since at least September this year, without successfully cracking it:
"Get this - there is a Bitcoin wallet with 69,000 Bitcoins ($693,207,618) that is being passed around between hackers/crackers for the past 2 years for the purpose of cracking the password, no success so far," Gal had earlier said.
"I have the wallet, @Google hook me up with a quantum computer please."
Gal suspects the outgoing transaction was made by either the original owner of the wallet as a response to the recent publicity generated by the wallet or by someone who has managed to crack its password.
According to Gal, the wallet had been "dormant" since 2015, with regards to debit transactions.
A single billion-dollar debit transaction from an otherwise dormant account does look suspicious and raises red flags.
In June 2020, another Bitcoin wallet with a billion-dollar valuation had been inexplicably emptied.
While transactions made on the Bitcoin ledger are publicly visible, some level of anonymity granted to cryptocurrency users makes the money harder to track.
Following the money trail, however, is possible even with cryptocurrency and may, in turn, reveal to financial and regulatory authorities any instances of illicit activities such as money laundering which may occur.
Update—November 5th, 2020:
The wallet in question has been found to have links to Silk Road. The Bitcoins worth almost $1bn have been seized by the US Department of Justice: US govt behind $1 billion Bitcoin transfer of Silk Road funds
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