The Silk Road was shut down years ago and the main man behind the site is serving 2 life sentences behind bars, but, some of the money linked to his operation is moving – according to blockchain analysis.
Many BTC in circulation are said to have links to crime.
Blockchain trackers Elliptic and Ciphertrace have recently reported that about 69,370 bitcoin was moved from a wallet believed to originate from the Silk Road. Its not clear whether the move is being made by hackers, an owner of Silk Road, or law enforcement.
The wallet that is making the transfer is said to be the 4th richest Bitcoin wallet to date.
Those behind the silk road may be moving the money to keep it safe or launder it further, or it may be law enforcement that is behind it, as in 2015, BTC seized from another wallet was auctioned off by the US government.
Dr. Tom Robinson, co-founder of the Blockchain analysts Elliptic, said the account which is moving the funds hasn’t been in use since 2015.
“Blockchain analytics shows these funds originated from a wallet linked to the Silk Road back in 2012,” he said.
“The movement of these bitcoins … may represent Ulbricht or a Silk Road vendor moving their funds, however it seems unlikely that Ulbricht would be able to conduct a Bitcoin transaction from prison.”
Fellow Blockchain analysts Ciphertrace said in their report:”There is some speculation that the wallet could have been cracked by hackers. These movements could possibly mean that the wallet owner is moving funds to new addresses to prevent hackers from accessing the wallet.dat file, or that hackers have already cracked the file.”
But, considering bitcoin is touching its highest prices since January 2018, its not entirely clear who is behind the transfers and what the motives are.
