An article popped up on Kitco News yesterday really caught my attention, centered around the sudden movement of Bitcoins that were stolen in the now infamous hack of Mt. Gox which ultimately led to its downfall. After 7 years laying low in a wallet related to the hack, it was noticed that two transactions totaling 10,000 Bitcoins were moved to two recipients with 6,500 going to a single wallet while the remaining 3,500 went into several wallets.
Let's backtrack a bit.
Mt. Gox was founded in 2010 in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. By 2014, it was handling some 70% of all Bitcoin transactions around the world. Unbeknownst to everyone (except the hackers), undetected theft was occurring since as early as 2011. Mt. Gox halted all withdrawals on February 7, 2014 when they realized they were insolvent and by the 24th of the same month, suspended all trading (Game Over).
It was believed that some 850,000 Bitcoins were stolen in the years long hack but some were recovered, although the loss is still significant, Some say it's 650,000 while others say it is closer to 750,000 Bitcoins stolen, such as the Kitco article posted yesterday.
650,000 Bitcoins today at $16,500 amounts to an incredible $10,725,000,000. At the time they were stolen, they were worth somewhere in the hundreds of millions. The Mt. Gox hack is regarded as the biggest Bitcoin disaster. Yet, those coins didn't just disappear. They were moved into a dormant wallet of which the address is known but its owner(s) remains unknown.
What we do know is that these and other 'early' Bitcoins are in the hands of criminals and we should be vigilant not to accept Bitcoin from these wallets, for obvious reason.
Ki Young Ju, founder of CryptoQuant spotted the transactions and alerted HitBC after 65 Bitcoin were sent to wallet on its exchange. He notified the exchange and suggested they freeze that account.
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Interestingly, Ju said that old 'dirty' Bitcoin suddenly moving usually means a bearish signal for Bitcoin. I suppose it would pull the price of Bitcoin down if they suddenly dump mass amounts here and there.
Thank goodness there are guys like JU who have remained vigilant all this time. These hackers were hoping noone would notice the transaction after all these years. They were wrong!
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