The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has reportedly overlooked millions of dollars’ worth of Bitcoin forks after the seizure of over $1 billion associated with the notorious now-defunct darknet market Silk Road.
According to blockchain analytics firm Coinfirm, The DOJ did not seize a few cryptoassets that they would have had access to using the same private keys that gave them access to the over $1 billion worth of BTC from the Silk Road. Authorities would have access to these funds as forks occur when a blockchain splits into two different ones. Both chains, while different from that point on, share the same history.
The DOJ was reportedly given access to the 69,370 BTC contained in the wallet by a hacker that cooperated with authorities, known only as “Induvial X,” who decided to give them access to the funds, and who is said to have walked away from the case without facing any charges.
Data on the Bitcoin blockchain shows that the address, starting with 1HQ3, was one of the largest BTC holders before the funds were moved by authorities. The associated Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold, and Bitcoin SV were also moved at the time.
Coinfirm’s “self-funded investigation” revealed that the government “seemingly overlooked” millions worth of cryptoassets forked from the Bitcoin blockchain, leaving the funds “in the hands of whoever has access to the private keys of the main wallet.”
These include:
- “693701 Bitcoin Diamond (“BCD”), which is presently worth approximately 310,000 USD
- 69370 Super Bitcoin (“SBTC”), which is presently worth approximately 66,000 USD
- 69370.11453606 Bitcoin Private (“BTCP”), which is presently worth approximately 11,000 USD”
This would mean Individual X still has access to these funds, as long as he or she still has access to the private keys used to access the 1HQ3 address. Despite claiming millions were left behind by the DOJ, Coinfirm pointed to address that cumulative has less than $1 million worth of crypto in them.
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