The cryptocurrency that was taken into custody was linked to James Zhong, who was found guilty in 2022 of wire fraud with the Silk Road business.
A new address has been assigned to around $2 billion in Bitcoin that was previously seized by US authorities and linked to the Silk Road bazaar.
On April 2, a wallet reportedly connected to the US Justice Department sent 0.001 Bitcoin to a Coinbase Prime address, presumably as a test transaction, according to blockchain data. Not too long later, 30,174 BTC—roughly $2 billion at the time of publication—were moved to a new address by the same wallet. Internet detectives discovered that the DOJ wallet included Bitcoin that had been taken from James Zhong, who was found guilty in 2022 of charges related to “illegally obtained” cryptocurrency from Silk Road.
In 2012, Zhong pilfered over 50,000 Bitcoins from Silk Road. During an operation on his house in 2021, US police found hard wallets holding Bitcoin, one of which was “on a single-board computer that was submerged under blankets in a popcorn tin.” The address that sent over 30,000 BTC on April 2 received the majority of the cryptocurrency that was seized.
