Reports have surfaced indicating that a staggering $20 million in cryptocurrency has been siphoned from an Ethereum wallet controlled by the U.S. Government.
This incident raises serious concerns about the security protocols in place for managing seized digital assets, potentially undermining the integrity of governmental cryptocurrency operations.
The breach was first reported by cybersecurity experts who noticed irregular transactions originating from the Ethereum wallet in question.
According to the on-chain intelligence platform Arkham, $20 million worth of assets—including USDC, aUSDC, USDT, and ETH—were mysteriously transferred on Oct. 24 from a wallet previously linked to federal seizures of funds connected to the infamous 2016 Bitfinex hack. This suspicious movement flagged by Arkham has led to speculation that the assets were stolen and are being actively laundered.
Source: Arkham Intelligence/ X
Arkham’s investigation pointed out that the funds were directed to wallet address 0x348, which has since been systematically selling the stolen assets for ETH. The suspicious transfers, Arkham noted, also included approximately $6.52 million worth of stablecoins withdrawn from the Aave lending protocol, indicating that the U.S. government had been earning interest on these assets.
On-chain sleuth ZachXBT independently confirmed the possibility of theft, observing that the funds are likely being laundered across multiple crypto exchanges, including Nexchange, Switchain, and an exchange that operates via Binance’s liquidity network.
Source: ZachXBT/ X
At present, the hacker’s wallet is holding roughly $13.2 million in assets, primarily in aUSDC—USDC tokens deposited in the Aave protocol—suggesting the stolen assets are slowly being liquidated or repositioned. These assets are reported to include 13.7 million aUSDC, 5.45 million USDC, 1.12 million USDT, and nearly half a million dollars in ETH.
Source: Arkham Intelligence
This article was first posted by Coin360.com
