THE HACKER who stole $20 million from the United States of America (U.S.A) government’s crypto wallet has returned $19.2 million dollars.
The sum, divided by 13.19Million $aUSDC and 2,408 $ETH, was sent back to the government wallet.
Late Last night, an estimated $20 million worth of cryptocurrency was stolen from the US government. The stolen funds were related to the Oxc9E. The same account also received assets from the accounts involved in the 2016 Bitfinex Hack.
The stolen assets included AUSDC stablecoin, which was worth $13.7 million. The rest of the stolen assets were USDC worth $5.4 million, USDT worth $1.1 million, and Ethereum valued at $500,000.
Cunningly, The hacker was quick enough to shuffle the funds to numerous non-custodial wallets. The initial $20 million transfer was flagged just as a movement to a new address.
These funds are linked to a 2016 hack involving the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex.
U.S.A authorities arrested Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, who were accused of laundering the stolen assets and later admitted guilt to money laundering charges in August 2023.
The Department of Justice seized $3.6 billion in cryptocurrency from the pair. Lichtenstein stole around 120,000 Bitcoin.
The arrest of the duo led to the largest crypto seizure by the Department of Justice to date. The value of 120,000 Bitcoin at press time is $8.1 billion as per the current Bitcoin price of $67,500.
IN OTHER NEWS, Bitcoin (BTC) open interest reached another all-time high, as the price seeks a new direction.
BTC open interest moved above $32B based on Glassnode data, FROM while other futures trackers show $21.59B across top exchanges.
Additional Coinglass metrics tallies all open interest with CME and smaller markets at more than $39B.
During the latest liquidity expansion, BTC also recovered to $68,448.95, still dominating Ethereum (ETH) and the altcoin market.
The $69,000 level has established resistance in the past day. Any attempts at rallying often end in more selling, leading BTC to dip to the $67,000 range within minutes of attempting a breakout.
BTC trading volumes are within their usual range at $30B in 24 hours, while USDT volumes were above $57B per day.
BTC is also entering the final stretch of election-year trading, an event that could also re-establish the sentiment of crypto traders.