United States authorities have seized over $1 billion worth of Bitcoins (BTC) associated with darknet marketplace Silk Road, according to a statement published by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) on Nov. 4.

• The DOJ filed a civil complaint for the forfeiture of 69,370 Bitcoins worth $1.07 billion, as well as assets derived from forks of Bitcoin like Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
• With the help of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation department, the DOJ was able to trace the Bitcoin funds that Silk Road had stored in a wallet
• Law enforcement tied the assets to Silk Road and seized them on Nov. 3, after they traced the funds to a hacker who transferred them to a different wallet; the hacker consented to handing the funds over to authorities
• IRS officials said that they would continue to trace “virtual currency transactions...to hone our skills to combat illegal activity”
• These Bitcoins are the very same assets that blockchain intelligence firm CipherTrace reported on Nov. 3 moved from a wallet linked to Silk Road