US authorities confiscated Silk Road-related bitcoins worth more than $1 billion. These are the 69,370 BTCs.

Law enforcement officers also confiscated an equivalent number in Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV and Bitcoin Gold. The Office stressed that this was the largest amount in crypt currency ever confiscated by the US authorities.

According to a court document, the owner of the address, which runs under the pseudonym Invididual X, broke into Silk Road and stole the coins. Earlier we wrote that they were removed from the darknet market on 6 May 2012. A year after their withdrawal, they were moved to the address where they were kept until they were confiscated.

On 3 November, Invididual X signed an agreement to transfer the coins to law enforcement. On 4 November, the coin price exceeded $1 billion amid a rise in the price of Bitcoin.

Silk Road is believed to have earned 614,000 BTCs on commissions, although only 174,000 BTCs were seized from Ross Ulbricht when he was arrested.

Recall that the wallet.dat file to Invididual X was sold on hacker forums for several years. When 69 370 BTC was transferred to another address, many people concluded that someone had managed to find a private key.

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