Court Documents Reveal Identity of Hacker Who Stole $4 Billion in Bitcoin from Silk Road
Recent court documents have shed light on the identity of the hacker who allegedly stole $4 billion worth of Bitcoin from the Silk Road darknet marketplace. The individual, referred to as “Person X” in legal filings, agreed to hand over the stolen cryptocurrency to authorities in exchange for avoiding prosecution. As part of the deal, the government agreed not to publicly disclose the hacker’s identity, though the documents refer to “Person X” as male.
The Bitcoin address in question, known as “1HQ3Go3ggs8pFnXuHVHRytPCq5fGG8Hbhx” or simply “1HQ3,” has long been a topic of discussion online due to its inactivity and its consistent ranking among the top ten richest Bitcoin addresses. The possibility that “1HQ3” was linked to Silk Road—and represented proceeds from criminal activity—only increased public interest in the account’s owner. The connection between Silk Road and “1HQ3” was confirmed in a forfeiture document filed by Department of Justice attorneys in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Although the contents of “1HQ3” have been transferred to a government-controlled wallet, the court must still approve the sale of the Bitcoin by the government.
Legal Disputes Over the Seized Bitcoin
When the Department of Justice sought court approval to auction off the seized assets and deposit the proceeds into the U.S. Treasury, Las Vegas entrepreneur Jay Bloom intervened in the case, claiming he was entitled to a portion of the funds. While Bloom’s filings do not explicitly name Ngan, it is believed that Bloom’s former business partner, who is connected to the “1HQ3” wallet, is “Person X.” According to The Smoking Gun, Bloom has demanded $2.2 billion from 49-year-old Raymond Ngan.
Background: The Silk Road Case
The Silk Road website was shut down by the FBI in 2013, and its alleged founder, Ross Ulbricht, was convicted in 2015 and sentenced to life in prison. At the time, the FBI seized 174,000 bitcoins from Ulbricht, but experts believe his earnings (from site commissions) could have reached 440,000 bitcoins, meaning significant funds may have remained in circulation. The Silk Road wallet was considered the fourth largest Bitcoin holder in the world. Tom Robinson, co-founder of London-based crypto analytics firm Elliptic, confirmed that the funds withdrawn from the account in 2013 came from addresses linked to Silk Road.
The $4 Billion Bitcoin Heist
In November, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that a hacker had stolen a large amount of Bitcoin from Ulbricht in 2012. At the time of the theft, Bitcoin was worth about $5, making the stolen funds worth $359,000 then. Today, with Bitcoin prices exceeding $60,000, the value of the stolen cryptocurrency is over $4 billion.
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