Threat actor returns $19.3m to U.S. government wallets

As a seasoned crypto investor with a knack for navigating the digital wild west, I find myself left scratching my head at this peculiar turn of events. The fact that hackers, who typically operate under the cloak of anonymity, have chosen to return the bulk of their ill-gotten gains to the U.S. government within a day, is nothing short of astounding.


In simpler terms, the cybercriminals responsible for the breach of U.S. government cryptocurrency wallets quickly gave back most of the money they had taken within just one day after the initial theft.

Fear of Uncle Sam or good faith from bad actors?

In an unexpected twist, hackers who had pilfered approximately $20 million from U.S. government accounts returned about 88% of the funds to the authorities.

According to a report by crypto.news, there was a cyber attack on U.S. government digital wallets on October 24th. During this incident, the hackers managed to illegally transfer cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum (ETH) that had been confiscated due to criminal activities in the crypto world, including the $8 billion heist at Bitfinex. Within a day, these hackers performed an about-face and returned around $19.3 million, as revealed by blockchain investigators Arkham and ZachXBT on October 25th.

According to on-chain information, the perpetrators primarily transferred back Aave’s USDC tokens, amounting to approximately $13.19 million. The remaining sum was dispersed among regular USDC tokens and Ethereum (ETH).

The U.S. government’s account has recently recovered $19.3 million, which was stolen in a hack reported yesterday, within only about 24 hours since the first account intrusion. So far, approximately 88% of the stolen funds have been returned.

— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) October 25, 2024

The incident has left numerous community members puzzled. Initially, people were perplexed as to why someone would attack U.S. government digital wallets. The move to return the stolen funds has further sparked intrigue and speculation. So far, the specifics on how the hack was carried out have been kept under wraps, and at the time of publication, the identity of the hacker or potential suspects remained unknown.

People are anticipating that the American administration will take action against those involved, given that law enforcement has been increasingly focused on investigating cryptocurrency-related financial offenses.

Federal authorities have previously charged and filed legal actions against those responsible for hacking Bitfinex, and the FBI has apprehended an individual from Alabama connected to the SEC’s false Bitcoin ETF announcement regarding a phony BTC ETF.

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2024-10-25 18:44