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I found it interesting none of these sites actually provided the alleged bitcoin wallet address. I found it @ https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/13nmJ3SsNB5

I found it interesting none of these sites actually provided the alleged bitcoin wallet address. I found it @ https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/13nmJ3SsNB5pSyQrmX3e6zveY9kHGw8Vs3 https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/13nmJ3SsNB5pSyQrmX3e6...

jhgorrell 6y ago
Kinda funny to see 1BTC sent to check it worked before they sent the rest. Cant undo it like a wire transfer...
- gruez 6y ago
  But why 1 BTC? That's worth more than 10k. Surely they could have sent a fraction? Or maybe they didn't know bitcoins can be split?
  - vdfs 6y ago
    10k out of 4.3m
  - csomar 6y ago
    1 BTC is a fraction of 400BTC
  - uncleputin 6y ago
    10k is not that much considering they are ready to pay out 5M
    - dopamean 6y ago
      No but isn't it just as easy to send a fraction of a bitcoin? Why spend a whole one to do something you could do with 1/100th?
hartator 6y ago
Can the money be followed here? How they are going to spend it if it’s marked as stolen?
lgregg 6y ago
clicked through the transactions and found this wallet: https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/17A16QmavnUfCW11DAApiJxp7ARnxN5pGX https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/17A16QmavnUfCW11DAApi... a balance of 16m and over 1.4 trillon usd has passed through this account. the oldest transaction i could find was 2019-11-02 14:19: https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/17A16QmavnUfCW11DAApiJxp7ARnxN5pGX?page=10001 https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/17A16QmavnUfCW11DAApi...
- zaroth 6y ago
  I would assume one address with 377k transactions that has seen over 131 million BTC move through it strongly implies it's some sort of tumbler address. I'm not sure why reusing one address like this would make any sense though...
  - Drdrdrq 6y ago
    It is more difficult to trace funds through a single node with gazillion transactions. This is part of the laundering scheme. Of course, all such addresses are immediately suspect, but if they pay out to innocent addresses too... It's difficult to distinguish between signal and noise.
    - sonicggg 6y ago
      Isn't that overcomplicating things though? If tracing is a concern, why not use Monero instead?
moonchild 6y ago
Probably a condition of the ransom. If the wallet address is known, then it can be blacklisted by exchanges.
- colinmhayes 6y ago
  Lol as if they'd just send straight to an exchange.
  - moonchild 6y ago
    Maybe not, but it still makes them easier to trace.
Lukabuz 6y ago
If anyone is interested, I wrote a python script to track where transactions from this address lead. It constructs a tree with this address being the base node, and addresses it has sent bitcoin to being the leaves. https://github.com/lukabuz/BlockView https://github.com/lukabuz/BlockView It didn't really lead anywhere substantial, but it was interesting to see how many addresses got involved after the depth of the tree exceeded 4. As another commenter pointed out, some of these addresses have obscene amounts of money going through them. Really makes you think about the scale of these tumblers. 1NDyJtNTjmwk5xPNhjgAMu4HDHigtobu1s is an example, with about $108,081,555,724 having gone through it, and a current balance of $51,644,803

jhgorrell 6y ago

Kinda funny to see 1BTC sent to check it worked before they sent the rest. Cant undo it like a wire transfer...

gruez 6y ago
But why 1 BTC? That's worth more than 10k. Surely they could have sent a fraction? Or maybe they didn't know bitcoins can be split?
- vdfs 6y ago
  10k out of 4.3m
- csomar 6y ago
  1 BTC is a fraction of 400BTC
- uncleputin 6y ago
  10k is not that much considering they are ready to pay out 5M
  - dopamean 6y ago
    No but isn't it just as easy to send a fraction of a bitcoin? Why spend a whole one to do something you could do with 1/100th?

hartator 6y ago

Can the money be followed here? How they are going to spend it if it’s marked as stolen?

lgregg 6y ago

clicked through the transactions and found this wallet: https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/17A16QmavnUfCW11DAApiJxp7ARnxN5pGX https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/17A16QmavnUfCW11DAApi... a balance of 16m and over 1.4 trillon usd has passed through this account. the oldest transaction i could find was 2019-11-02 14:19: https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/17A16QmavnUfCW11DAApiJxp7ARnxN5pGX?page=10001 https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/17A16QmavnUfCW11DAApi...

zaroth 6y ago
I would assume one address with 377k transactions that has seen over 131 million BTC move through it strongly implies it's some sort of tumbler address. I'm not sure why reusing one address like this would make any sense though...
- Drdrdrq 6y ago
  It is more difficult to trace funds through a single node with gazillion transactions. This is part of the laundering scheme. Of course, all such addresses are immediately suspect, but if they pay out to innocent addresses too... It's difficult to distinguish between signal and noise.
  - sonicggg 6y ago
    Isn't that overcomplicating things though? If tracing is a concern, why not use Monero instead?

moonchild 6y ago

Probably a condition of the ransom. If the wallet address is known, then it can be blacklisted by exchanges.

colinmhayes 6y ago
Lol as if they'd just send straight to an exchange.
- moonchild 6y ago
  Maybe not, but it still makes them easier to trace.

Lukabuz 6y ago

If anyone is interested, I wrote a python script to track where transactions from this address lead. It constructs a tree with this address being the base node, and addresses it has sent bitcoin to being the leaves. https://github.com/lukabuz/BlockView https://github.com/lukabuz/BlockView It didn't really lead anywhere substantial, but it was interesting to see how many addresses got involved after the depth of the tree exceeded 4. As another commenter pointed out, some of these addresses have obscene amounts of money going through them. Really makes you think about the scale of these tumblers. 1NDyJtNTjmwk5xPNhjgAMu4HDHigtobu1s is an example, with about $108,081,555,724 having gone through it, and a current balance of $51,644,803