Today, an interesting development occurred as US crypto wallets became active. Movements in government-owned wallets often trigger significant market events, making this situation critical. However, this time there are different circumstances. What are the details of the recent developments? Were US government crypto wallets compromised?
US Crypto Assets
The US Department of Justice had previously struck an agreement with Coinbase Prime. Under this agreement, government officials were to sell and store their cryptocurrencies through Prime. However, just a few hours ago, a $20 million transfer was made to suspicious addresses.
We had reported days ago that the Bitcoin 
$98,681 seized from Bitfinex attackers would be returned to the exchange, with the exchange being the sole creditor. This news on October 9 caused the Bitfinex compensation token, LEO, to jump from $6 to $13, as the return of BTC was expected to facilitate token recovery.
Are Crypto Wallets Being Emptied?
To address the main issue, today’s transfers are alleged to have been made by attackers. Arkham and ZachXBT have raised this claim. What is the reason? A portion of the funds has gone to an offshore exchange commonly used by cybercriminals. Transfers have also been made to the Binance exchange, which, according to the Coinbase Prime agreement, should not have occurred.
Minutes before the transfers happened, blockchain analysis firm Arkham Intelligence announced that funds belonging to the US government had been withdrawn from the AAVE platform. ZachXBT noted on Twitter that these activities seemed “suspicious” and likely indicated a hacking incident.
Later, it was noted that what appeared to be a Binance transaction was actually associated with another exchange using Binance for liquidity. Two conclusions can arise from this: either the US government wallet was emptied, or there are court orders for the return of funds to addresses provided by Bitfinex. However, the involvement of suspicious exchanges in the latter scenario strengthens the likelihood of a hack.
In the coming hours, we may see an announcement from the Department of Justice regarding this situation. If the wallets were indeed hacked, it would be a highly intriguing event.
