Bitcoin worth more than $3 billion was stolen ten years ago and has now been seized, hidden in popcorn buckets and other places.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan, New York, said on November 7 that a hacker stole more than $3 billion (about 21.8 billion yuan) worth of Bitcoin from an online trading platform ten years ago, and now these Bitcoins have been seized.

James Chung is a hacker who lives in Gainesville, Georgia.

When IRS agents searched his home in November last year,

more than 50,000 Bitcoins were seized, but the incident was not disclosed until today.

This is the second largest cryptocurrency confiscation case in the history of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Ten years ago, the funds were stolen by exploiting system vulnerabilities

The Guardian and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported that

James admitted that he stole funds from an underground trading website in 2012.

Police said that James took advantage of loopholes in the website's payment system to operate.

In September 2012, he established several accounts on the website and deposited a small amount of Bitcoin into his digital wallet.

Then he found a way to quickly withdraw larger amounts so as not to arouse suspicion.

When James stole these bitcoins, they were worth more than $3 billion (about 21.8 billion yuan). At present, their value has lost about two-thirds, about $1.1 billion (equivalent to 7.677 billion yuan).

There is also more than $600,000 in cash hidden at home, facing up to 20 years in prison

IRS agent Trevor McAleenan said in a testimony that the fact that he stole bitcoins was found on a computer in James' home, and 50,676 bitcoins were stored in some hard drives, some in a microcomputer at the bottom of a popcorn bucket in the bathroom closet, and some in an underground safe.

Manhattan prosecutor Damian Williams said in a statement: "For nearly 10 years, the whereabouts of this large pile of stolen bitcoins has become a mystery of super value. This case shows that we will not stop tracking stolen property, no matter how cleverly they are hidden, even if they are hidden in the circuit board at the bottom of the popcorn bucket, we will find it." The police used cryptocurrency tracking technology to locate Bitcoin.

The dark web distributes a large number of illegal goods and services to many buyers

The platform that James stole was the earliest dark web platform engaged in illegal transactions, operating from about 2011 to 2013. Drug dealers and other illegal suppliers distributed large quantities of illegal drugs, as well as other illegal goods and services, to many buyers.

In 2013, the US government banned the platform. The platform is actually a large-scale illegal drug and money laundering market. The founder, Ross Ulbricht, was convicted of seven counts of drug trafficking through Bitcoin in 2015. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and failed in his appeal in 2017.

James admitted to hacking into the platform on November 4 this year and handed over his Bitcoin and assets to the police while awaiting sentencing.

The largest cryptocurrency confiscation case in US history occurred in 2016, when the amount involved exceeded US$4 billion (about RMB 29 billion).