Arkham Intelligence recently reported a breach of a U.S. government-associated crypto wallet, resulting in the theft of $20 million (approximately Rp412 billion) in assets. These funds included cryptocurrencies that the U.S. government had previously seized following the 2016 Bitfinex hack.
In a post on X, Friday (Oct 25, 2024), Arkham revealed that a significant amount of assets, including USDC, aUSDC, USDT, aUSDT, and ETH totaling $20 million, were transferred through suspicious transactions to an attacker’s wallet with the “0x348” address. This wallet, believed to have been created about a week prior, was used to siphon off the stolen assets.
Arkham identified initial withdrawals from the Aave lending protocol, marking the first access to these funds in eight months. Subsequently, $1.25 million in USDT and $5.45 million in USDC were withdrawn from Aave and transferred to the “0x348” wallet, along with $446,000 in ETH, $13.7 million in aUSDC, and $1.12 million in aUSDT.
According to Arkham’s data, the hacker then exchanged stablecoins for ETH using the 1inch aggregator, and transferred approximately $320,000 worth of ETH to a deposit address on Binance, while other funds were sent to different wallets.
Stolen Funds Linked to Bitfinex Hack
The stolen funds were originally seized by the U.S. government in connection with the 2016 Bitfinex hack, involving Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan, who managed to steal 120,000 Bitcoin, then worth $3.6 billion, from the exchange. The couple was arrested in 2022 by U.S. authorities, along with the recovered cryptocurrency.
In July 2023, both Lichtenstein and Morgan pled guilty to charges of money laundering and conspiracy against the U.S. government. Initially, Lichtenstein claimed he only laundered the funds, later admitting to orchestrating the hacking scheme.
In October 2024, U.S. prosecutors recommended an 18-month prison sentence for Morgan, citing her minor role and cooperation, while suggesting a five-year sentence for Lichtenstein, significantly reduced from the initial 20-year charge. The couple is scheduled to serve their sentences in November 2024.
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