ChainCatcher news, according to an analysis by CryptoQuant founder Ki Young Ju, China may have sold 194,000 bitcoins seized from the PlusToken scam in 2019. These bitcoins were announced by the Chinese government to be "transferred to the national treasury," but it was not specified whether they had been sold.Ki Young Ju pointed out that these bitcoins flowed to several exchanges, including Huobi, after being mixed in 2019. If they were not sold, the operation of using mixers and multiple exchanges would be meaningless.

ChainCatcher news, Coinbase executive Conor Grogan posted that he discovered about 430 BTC in dozens of wallets associated with Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. These wallets have not been seized by the U.S. government and have not been touched for over 13 years. At that time, these might have just been "dust wallets" (referring to wallets with negligible amounts), and now they are worth approximately $47 million in total. If Ross Ulbricht can find the private keys, he may be able to recover this portion of the assets.

ChainCatcher news, according to a document disclosed by @tier1ok, a U.S. court has stated that it has the authority to order voluntary restitution based on the defendant's plea agreement. This voluntary restitution should include all assets seized from the Bitfinex hacker wallet, and according to the plea agreement, these assets should be returned to Bitfinex as restitution in kind.All other seized assets listed in the amended second revised attachment (ECF 195) should continue to undergo third-party ancillary forfeiture proceedings.

ChainCatcher message, Gravity stated on social media that G token staking users can now go to the airdrop claim window to receive SEI tokens. The first round of the airdrop reward pool is 345,000 $SEI. Gravity calculates the airdrop rewards that users can claim based on their staking holdings at the time of the snapshot.The snapshot time for the first round of $SEI tokens is: December 20, 10 PM Beijing time.The airdrop claim time is: January 15, 10 PM Beijing time. The claim window is open for 1 month. G token staking users can enter the staking page to claim their rewards.

ChainCatcher news, Binance founder Zhao Changpeng (CZ) tweeted that many people have regretted not buying Bitcoin early, not bottoming out, holding, or understanding cryptocurrency sooner.He emphasized, "Today is earlier than any day in the future." and noted "Not financial advice."

ChainCatcher news, according to Cryptonews, Russia has begun selling the Bitcoin seized during its investigation of the Infraud hacker organization in 2023. This move indicates that Moscow aims to exchange over 1,000 Bitcoins for fiat currency. The Russian official news agency TASS confirmed this development, stating that Moscow will first sell nearly $10 million worth of Bitcoin confiscated from former investigator Marat Tambiev of the Russian Investigative Committee.Last year, Tambiev was convicted of accepting bribes from the hacker organization. Prosecutors found hundreds of Bitcoins on his computer and storage devices. The former investigator was convicted of receiving 1,032.1 Bitcoins from the organization and was sentenced to 16 years in prison. However, the efforts of the bailiffs to liquidate all 1,032.1 Bitcoins became complicated due to legal obstacles. Tambiev appeared to have divided these Bitcoins into several smaller amounts. This means that the bailiffs must submit separate court rulings to allow Moscow to access these Bitcoins. Nevertheless, the bailiffs have successfully persuaded the court to allow them to sell the first batch of Bitcoins. They stated that Tambiev stored these Bitcoins in a Ledger Nano X hardware wallet.

ChainCatcher news, the Thai police have shut down a Bitcoin mining operation that is estimated to have stolen approximately $3 million worth of electricity. The mining site is located in the Phanat Nikhom district of Chonburi province in eastern Thailand, and the operation involved more than 1,000 machines. Although authorities could not provide an exact figure for the theft, its value could reach "hundreds of millions of baht."Miners tampered with the electricity meters of the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) to redirect power to their machines. An unidentified worker at the site told police that the electricity theft only occurred at night, while the meters were used correctly during the day to avoid detection.

ChainCatcher news, a court in the UK has ordered the seizure of approximately $4.3 million worth of Bitcoin from crime boss Alexander Surin (also known as Don Car-Leone) because he failed to prove that these crypto assets were obtained through legal means. This decision was made following an investigation into Surin's financial transactions related to his criminal activities.Surin fled to Dubai after being convicted of drug trafficking in France in 2015, prior to which a significant portion of his wealth, including luxury cars and properties in London, was confiscated by authorities.

ChainCatcher message, according to Trader T's post on X, regarding "the U.S. government has been authorized to liquidate 69,370 BTC seized from the Silk Road on the dark web," it may take several months from authorization to actual sale.In addition, according to Spot On Chain, the U.S. government currently holds about 197,000 BTC. Since previous sales were conducted through over-the-counter transactions, they did not directly affect the price, but the resulting market panic may lead to a temporary price drop.

ChainCatcher news, an official confirmed to DB News today that the U.S. government has been authorized to liquidate 69,000 bitcoins (worth $6.5 billion) from Silk Road. Notably, this comes less than two weeks after the new administration took office, which has vowed not to sell.

ChainCatcher news, according to Decrypt, Finnish police have seized luxury watches worth approximately $2.6 million belonging to Hex founder Richard Schueler (also known as Richard Heart) at a residence in Espoo, including 20 watches, most of which are Rolex. He is wanted for alleged nationwide tax evasion.This action is related to a previous red notice issued by Interpol against Schueler. He is accused of tax evasion, violent assault on minors, and misusing $12 million raised through the Hex project to purchase luxury goods.Additionally, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged him with raising over $1 billion through unregistered securities such as Hex, claiming that the high returns promised by his crypto project are unrealistic.

ChainCatcher message, on-chain analyst @0xhess posted on X: "In the past 30 days, Sei EVM has added 5 million addresses, setting a new record for the highest number in 30 days.These new addresses contributed approximately 80-85% of the overall activity during this period. The total number of addresses on Sei has now exceeded 10 million."

ChainCatcher news, the European Police Organization collaborated with law enforcement agencies from six countries to dismantle an international drug trafficking group using cryptocurrency.The operation resulted in the arrest of 9 suspects. During the operation, valuable items including gold and luxury goods, €35,000 in cash, and €25 million in cryptocurrency were seized, amounting to $26.23 million. The total value of the seized assets was €27 million, equivalent to $28.33 million.

ChainCatcher news, the Brazilian Federal Revenue Service (RF) recently seized 10 Bitcoin mining machines and 8 satellite internet devices, suspected of document non-compliance and smuggling through Paraguay. The seized products were shipped by two companies, destined for São Paulo and Maranhão, and the goods were chosen to be shipped from Foz do Iguaçu instead of the companies' registered locations, increasing the suspicion of smuggling.The Federal Revenue Service stated that it will submit the case to the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF), and the responsible persons of the related companies may face charges of smuggling or tax evasion.