Hacker Returns $19.3M After Breaching U.S. Government Crypto Wallet

Key Takeaways

•  Around $19.3 million of the stolen $20 million hack was sent back, according to blockchain analysis platform Arkham Intelligence. 
• The stolen funds included a mix of stablecoins, such as USDC, USDT, USDC, and ETH.

In an unexpected twist, most of the funds stolen from a US government-controlled crypto wallet were returned just a day after the hack. The breach, which occurred Thursday, resulted in the theft of approximately $20 million in digital assets.

Less than 24 hours later, around $19.3 million was sent back, as per the blockchain analysis platform Arkham Intelligence. “The US Government’s address has just received $19.3 million back following yesterday’s reported hack,” Arkham announced.

The reason behind the return remains speculative, but experts suggest that the visibility of hacking a government-linked wallet may have discouraged the attacker from laundering the funds. However, blockchain investigator ZachXBT noted that some funds, sent to exchanges like Switchain, HitBTC, and N Exchange, remain unreturned.

The stolen funds included a mix of stablecoins, such as aUSDC, USDT, USDC, and Ethereum (ETH). After the breach, the hacker had moved the assets to a new wallet and began suspicious transactions, attempting to launder the funds through decentralized lending platforms like Aave.

The compromised wallet was also linked to funds previously seized in the 2016 Bitfinex hack, which saw 119,754 Bitcoin—worth $70 million at the time—stolen in a significant cyberattack. The hacker from that incident, Ilya Lichtenstein, later admitted to the attack and was arrested in 2022 with his wife, Heather Morgan, marking the largest crypto seizure in US history.

The attack adds to a recent string of crypto-related breaches, including an October 16 exploit of Radiant Capital, where $50 million was drained from its cross-chain lending protocol.