Threat actor returns $19.3m to U.S. government wallets

Crypto hackers behind an exploit of U.S. government wallets returned the bulk of the funds stolen less than 24 hours after the initial attack.

Fear of Uncle Sam or good faith from bad actors?

In a bizarre turn of events, attackers who stole around $20 million from U.S. government addresses sent about 88% of the assets back to authorities.

As crypto.news reported, hackers breached U.S. government wallets on Oct. 24, illegally moving digital assets like Ethereum (ETH) that had been seized from crypto crimes, such as the $8 billion Bitfinex hack. Within 24 hours, the hackers reversed their heist and returned $19.3 million, according to Oct. 25 posts from blockchain sleuths Arkham and ZachXBT.

On-chain data showed that the exploiters returned mostly Aave (USDC), worth $13.19 million. The rest was spread across standard USDC tokens and ETH.

The situation has left many community members baffled. First, users questioned why anyone would target U.S. government wallets, and the decision to return the funds has only fueled more speculation. Details on how the hack was executed remain scarce, and the identity of the hacker or possible suspects was unknown at the time of publication.

Some expect the U.S. government to pursue those responsible, as authorities have recently intensified their crackdown on crypto financial crimes.

Federal prosecutors have already issued indictments and lawsuits against the Bitfinex hackers, and FBI agents arrested an Alabama man tied to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s fake spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETF announcement.