The US Government has reportedly managed to secure a staggering amount of Bitcoin that was allegedly stolen from the anonymous online black market, Silk Road. Specifically, it recovered just close to 70000 Bitcoin, which is currently valued at just over US$1 billion (~RM4.14 billion).
According to the US Department of Justice, it had seized the Bitcoin on 3 November and that they were all connected to an “Individual X”, who had stolen the coins from Silk Road sometime between 2012 and 2013.
To provide some background to the unaware, Silk Road was an online black market that operated within the Dark Web. Founded in 2011 by a Ross Ulbricht, the site was notorious for the sale of illegal drugs. Then, in 2013, the site was seized by the FBI, while Ulbricht was arrested, charged with money laundering conspiracy, drug trafficking on the internet, running a criminal enterprise, computer hacking, and narcotics trafficking.
For that matter, the DOJ says that the identity of the digital wallet’s owner was known to them, but did not reveal who it was or if the person was Ross Ulbricht. They merely got Individual X to sign a Consent and Agreement to Forfeiture.
On a separate note, Bitcoin has been seeing a surge in its value this month. Back in October, the cryptocurrency was hovering at the RM47000 mark. At the time of writing, one Bitcoin is worth RM65002, up from RM583340 yesterday.
(Source: Techspot)
