[2022-03-30] $540 Million of Bitcoins from 2014 Possibly Linked to Cryptsy Theft

[bbc.reporter]

This is another head shaking development on another theft from another old exchange. Similar to the news on the American government's recovery of the coins from the hack of Bitfinex, it also appears that the coins stolen from Cryptsy on 2014 to 2015 might also be in the hands of the American government. This is only speculation.

I am not certain if the American government holds those coins, however, if they do, will the American government auction these coins similar to what they have done before or will they send them to mixers to hide them and later dump them? I speculate through the movement of these Cryptsy bitcoins, it appears it might be for dumping.



A whole lot of bitcoin stemming from wallets created in 2014 moved on Tuesday and the funds may be tied to the Cryptsy theft. The now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange led by Paul Vernon lost millions of dollars worth of digital assets years ago at the end of 2015.

More recently at the end of January 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it had indicted Vernon for allegedly stealing over $1 million from digital currency wallets. The DOJ said Vernon, otherwise known as ‘Big Vern,’ stole from accounts between May 2013 and May 2015 and proceeded to deposit the stolen funds into his own bank account.

The funds that moved on March 29, 2022, derive from BTC wallets that were created on July 29, 2014. All 11,325 bitcoin were processed at block height 729,587, and the action was caught by Btcparser.com, and Whale Alert. “The massive amount of activated dormant [bitcoin] in the previous posts are possibly linked to the Cryptsy hack/theft,” Whale Alert tweeted on Tuesday. Onchain analysis further shows the 11,325 bitcoin may have originated from Cryptsy, according to clustering from oxt.me data as well.

The stash of bitcoin sat idle for more than seven years, and some people suspect the crypto may be in the hands of the U.S. government. The speculation derives from the recent Bitfinex hack coins that moved this year, coupled with the coincidental and recent DOJ indictment of ‘Big Vern.’ However, unlike the Bitfinex hack coins that consolidated into a single address, the transfers processed at block height 729,587 were sent to a wide range of addresses.

Read in full https://news.bitcoin.com/540-million-sleeping-bitcoins-2014-move-btc-possibly-linked-to-cryptsy-theft/

[Kakmakr]

I cannot see why the US Government would sit on those coins for such a long time... they use seized assets to fund their crime fighting operations and they also use that data to show their successes. The US Marshals would have bragged about a record seizure like that and it would have been a huge boost for their budget if they sold those coins. 

This type of information is spread quickly on Social media, when they have successes like this ==> https://www.cnbc.com/2015/03/05/feds-auction-135m-worth-of-silk-road-bitcoins.html

[bbc.reporter]

@Kakmakr. They might have learned that they should not brag about their seizures of large amounts of cryptocoins hehehe.

In any case, the article also mentioned that the DOJ has indicted Big Vern on January. He might have made  a deal with the DOJ in exchange for the private keys of the address containing the stolen coins. Also, those coins were split to hundreds of addresses which makes me speculate that they might not be put on auction.

[onehispano]

I lost several coins there, I wonder if foreign people can claim or recover the stolen funds besides class action lawsuit on cryptsysettlement website

[InvoKing]

I lost several coins there, I wonder if foreign people can claim or recover the stolen funds besides class action lawsuit on cryptsysettlement website

Sorry for your losses.
@OP, fix the date on the title.

[bbc.reporter]

I lost several coins there, I wonder if foreign people can claim or recover the stolen funds besides class action lawsuit on cryptsysettlement website

Sorry for your losses.
@OP, fix the date on the title.

Sorry hehehe. Missing 2 years because of the pandemic lockdowns made me think it is still 2020 hehehe.