Elliptic, a blockchain forensics service, has identified the bitcoin (EXANTE: Bitcoin) wallet used by the DarkSide hacker group to receive ransom made by Colonial Pipeline. According to an announcement, the wallet received the 75 BTC payment made by the largest pipeline system.
Subscribe to our Telegram channel to stay up to date on the latest crypto and blockchain news.
Tom Robinson, Elliptic's Co-Founder, says that the wallet received a total of 57 payments with a total value of $17.5 million from 21 wallets since March 4, 2021.
"Some of these payments directly match ransoms known to have been paid to DarkSide by other victims, such as 78.29 BTC (worth $4.4 million) sent by chemical distribution company Brenntag on May 11," Robinson noted.
Elliptic believes that there was the same party responsible for the attack on Colonial Pipeline and Brenntag as the affiliate’s share was sent to the same bitcoin address. The company also found an unreported ransom payment for ~$320,000 that was made to DarkSide on May 10. What is more important is that the cryptocurrency was sent from the same exchange used by Colonial Pipeline. It is worth saying that earlier it was reported by The Washington Post that the company decided not to pay a ransom demanded by the hackers.
While the hackers — according to The Wall Street Journal — seized their operations due to disruption from a law-enforcement agency and pressure from the US, the Elliptic Co-Founder says the company doubts that bitcoin were seized by the US watchdog. According to Elliptic, approximately 8% of the bitcoin was sent to a "small group of exchanges," and an additional 4% to Hydra, the world’s largest darknet marketplace.
Access more than 50 of the world's financial markets directly from your EXANTE account – including NASDAQ, London Stock Exchange and Tokyo Stock Exchange.