Using those private keys, law enforcement seized over US$3.6 billion in cryptocurrency. Authorities hunted the funds by using public blockchain data, searching through thousands of transactions conducted over the course of nearly six years, which ultimately led them to accounts maintained by the defendants.
How did the FBI track down a bitcoin transaction?
Court documents indicated that investigators traced bitcoin transaction records to a digital wallet, which they subsequently seized under court order. Officials were then able to access that wallet with something called a “private key,” or password.
How did the FBI seize bitcoin from Darkside?
Major news outlets reported the news in a way that said the FBI had hacked the Bitcoins from Darkside. However, the FBI recovered the Bitcoins from the Bitcoin wallet by deducing the password, not hacking Bitcoin. Read on to know how the FBI seized Bitcoin from Darkside.
How much bitcoin did the US government seize from colonial?
The U.S. Justice Department on Monday said a news conference that it seized about 64 bitcoin paid by Colonial to hackers, valued at roughly $2.3 million, from a virtual wallet.