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According to recent information, an unknown user recently moved $1 billion in Bitcoin from a crypto wallet address associated with the dark web market, Silk Road. The funds were locked away a long time ago, with zero activity between 2015 and now.
The story of Silk Road
Silk Road, the dark web market, was one of the biggest early markets in the world that accepted Bitcoin payments. For the right price, anyone was able to buy any illicit goods or pay for illicit services, and due to its supposed anonymity back in the day, they were among the earliest Bitcoin adopters.
Of course, since it was all completely illegal, the authorities had a major incentive to crack down on it, and they did just that. Silk Road was shut down in 2013, and its creator, Ross Ulbricht, was arrested, found guilty of numerous crimes — such as hacking, conspiracy to traffic narcotics, money laundering, and more — and is currently serving two life sentences.
The funds tied to the market were in a wallet that has been circulating among hackers for over two years after the crackdown. However, the activity eventually stopped, and the last recorded transaction took place in April 2015.
Silk Road’s wallet sees new activity after five years
For a long time, everyone believed that the Silk Road’s story has ended. Then, without any warning, the wallet started seeing new activity recently, when someone started moving Bitcoins.
The unknown user first moved 1 BTC, likely in order to test the network. After that, they started moving the rest of the coins.
According to Ciphertrace, the transactions were likely made to ‘stay up to date with the Bitcoin network.’ In other words, the crypto user aimed to switch between address formats.
Another possibility, that Ciphertrace did not rule out, is that someone simply hacked the wallet. After all, there was one Twitter user who claimed to have the wallet.dat file back in September. The user discussed the possibility of gaining access to Silk Road’s coins with the crypto community, even suggesting the use of a quantum computer to break into it.
Whether this is the same user or not is unknown, but whatever the case may be — Silk Road’s coins are now once again on the move.
The post $1 billion in Bitcoin (BTC) just left the Silk Road wallet appeared first on Invezz.
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