Coinfirm: Authorities Overlook Access to Wallets Linked to Bitcoin Forks

Authorities overlook large sums in Bitcoin forks when confiscating digital assets from criminals. This is stated in a Coinfirm study.

The report’s authors mention seizure by the US Department of Justice of 69,370 BTC linked to the Silk Road darknet market. At the time, authorities said they received an equivalent amount in Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV and Bitcoin Gold.

The Silk Road story: how Bitcoin elevated the darknet economy to a new level

However, the owner of the address under the alias Invididual X, who handed the coins to authorities, may still have access to “millions of dollars”. Coinfirm asserts that the United States government overlooked wallets with several Bitcoin forks of the original cryptocurrency.

According to the company, the original wallet may be linked to 693,701 Bitcoin Diamond (BCD), 69,370 Super Bitcoin (SBTC) and over 69,370 Bitcoin Private (BTCP). The total value of these assets at the time of writing is estimated at $387,000.

Coinfirm identified dozens of cases where law enforcement authorities may have unintentionally left substantial funds accessible instead of accounting for and seizing these assets,” the company said.

In late August, the US Department of Justice filed a cryptocurrency forfeiture action from 280 accounts allegedly linked to North Korean hackers.

In November, the agency at the request of Brazilian authorities arrested cryptocurrency worth $24 million from a probable organizer of the fraud scheme.

The sale of forfeited digital assets in the United States is handled by the United States Marshals Service (USMS). As noted in February, the USMS sold 4,040 BTC at auction.

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