Billion-Dollar
Bitcoin Seizure Left Behind Millions in Forked Coins: Report
The U.S. Department of Justice
(DOJ) has reportedly overlooked millions of dollars’ worth of Bitcoin forks
after the seizure of over $1 billion associated
with the notorious now-defunct darknet market Silk Road.
According to blockchain
analytics firm Coinfirm, The DOJ did not seize a few cryptoassets that
they would have had access to using the same private keys that gave them
access to the over $1 billion worth of BTC from the Silk Road.
Authorities would have access
to these funds as forks occur when a blockchain splits into two different
ones. Both chains, while different from that point on, share the same
history. The DOJ was reportedly given access to the funds by a hacker known
only as “individual X.”
While the BTC, BCH, BTG, and
BSV from the main address, which starts with 1HQ3, were moved, other funds
created through hard forks like Bitcoin Diamond, Super Bitcoin, and Bitcoin
Private were not moved.
