Criminals operating in the hidden territory of the Internet often flocked to Bitcoin to do illegal business without revealing their name or location.
On Monday, the Justice Department announced that it had tracked $ 63.7 out of 75 Bitcoin .
But for a growing community of crypto enthusiasts and investors, the fact that federal agents were tracking ransoms passed through at least 23 different electronic accounts belonging to it.
Haun added that the speed at which the Justice Department seized most of the ransom was “breakthrough” due to the use of cryptocurrencies by hackers.
The public key is a string of numbers and letters that Bitcoin holders have to trade with others, and the “private key” is used to keep the wallet secure.
Justice ministry spokesman Marc Raimondi refused to talk further about how the FBI seized Dark Side’s private key.
Federal agents can spy on humans within the Dark Side network, hack computers that store private keys and passwords, or hand them over to services that hold secret purses by search warrants or other means.
“If they can get the key, it can be confiscated,” said Jesse Proudman, founder of.
The FBI has partnered with several companies that specialize in tracking cryptocurrencies across digital accounts, according to authorities, court documents, and companies.
“Cryptocurrencies allow us to use these tools to track funds and financial flows along the blockchain in ways that cash cannot,” said TRM Labs, a blockchain intelligence company that sells analytics software.
On the weekend, Bitcoin conference More than 12,000 attendees gathered in Miami, including Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and former boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr.
In the United States, anti-money laundering and identification laws require such services to know who their customers are and create a link between their identity and their account.
“We can live in a world with cryptocurrencies and a world without ransomware, but we can’t have both,” said Lee Reiners, Executive Director of the Global Financial Markets Center at Duke University Law School.
Some cryptocurrency holders Save the private key In a so-called “cold wallet” away from what is connected to the internet.
In January, the Justice Department confused another ransomware group.
“We believe these individuals operate anonymously in the digital space, but we have the skills and tenacity to identify and prosecute these actors and seize criminal proceeds throughout the law.