United States: The US government has announced its biggest cryptocurrency recovery ever after the discovery of 50,676 bitcoins linked to the infamous Silk Road dark web market.

At the time of writing, the value of recovered bitcoins is very close to $1.04 billion (or approximately Rs.8,228 crore). US Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York confirmed the specifics. Ross Ulbricht, who is currently in prison, launched Silk Road, an online marketplace on the dark web, in 2011.

The bitcoin was recovered from a Georgia address linked to James Zhong. Other items recovered from Zhong's possession include precious metals and $661,900 (about Rs 5 crore) in cash.

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"In September 2012, Zhong planned to defraud the Silk Road of his wealth and assets by fabricating a string of about ten different identities.

According to a report by the US Department of Justice, in an effort to hide his identity, Zhong initiated more than 140 transactions in quick succession using nine Silk Road accounts, linking Silk Road's clearance-processing system to about 50,000 in Zhong's accounts. Tricked to issue bitcoins. DOJ).

Later, Zhong moved the bitcoins to several different addresses, all of which were under his control. The defendant pleaded guilty to committing this wire fraud in 2012.

“Law enforcement discovered and recovered this impressive cache of criminal proceeds thanks to state-of-the-art cryptocurrency tracing and good old-fashioned police work. This case demonstrates that we will continue to chase the money, regardless of how well it was concealed. Ho, DOJ added in its blog post.

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When it first opened in 2011, the Silk Road Marketplace allowed customers to use bitcoin to buy anything, including illegal drugs. To pay his legal fees, the project's imprisoned creator, Ross Ulbricht, is auctioning off some of his prison-produced artwork as an NFT.

Since serving two life sentences in prison in October 2015, Ulbricht has been behind bars. Meanwhile, US authorities are taking action to prevent cryptocurrency activities from being used by fraudsters as a secure tool to commit financial crimes.

A veteran prosecutor of computer crimes was selected by the DOJ in February of this year to lead its brand-new national cryptocurrency enforcement team.

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The US government then accused a married couple from New York of allegedly legalizing bitcoin, which was worth over $4.5 billion (about Rs 33,750 crore) at the time. They were taken in the Bitfinex hack in 2016.