According to Stockhead, Cryptocurrency prices have plunged across the board after the FBI said it had seized most of millions of dollars of the Bitcoin sent to an affiliate of the “DarkSide” hacker group behind a major US oil pipeline hack last month.
The FBI said it had seized 63.7 BTC – worth about A$2.8 million – that were paid by Colonial Pipeline to the group to regain control over its systems after the ransomware attack, which led to huge queues for petrol across the eastern United States following panic-buying.
The FBI made the announcement around 6am AEST and crypto prices dropped across the board about 45 minutes later.
Bitcoin fell from around US$35,500 to under US$34,000, while Ethereum fell from over US$2,700 to under $US2,600.
Colonial Pipeline paid 75 BTC in the ransomware attack. Apparently 15 per cent of the BTC went to the DarkSide hackers and the rest to the affiliate group. DarkSide, a Russian-speaking group, operates a “ransomware as a service” operation and apparently takes a 15 per cent cut.
Source: Stockhead
