Missing $3.4 billion in Bitcoin is found hidden in popcorn box

Police found a haul of more than $3 billion in Bitcoin that had been stolen from the dark web a decade ago, with some of it found stashed away on a device hidden inside a popcorn tin.

Cops in Georgia in the US, raided the home of James Zhong, 32, and uncovered numerous devices hiding away the stolen cryptocurrency.

Zhong had managed to hack more than 50,000 Bitcoin 10 years ago from the now-defunct dark web marketplace Silk Road.

In the decade since the theft, the amount the Bitcoin was worth had sky-rocketed to $3.3billion (£2.9billion).

This is the second largest cryptocurrency seizure in US history - the first being the stolen $4billion (£3.4b) that was recovered by cops in February this year.

On Friday, Zhong pleaded guilty to wire fraud and now faces up to 20 years in prison.

Officers searching the man’s house found the devices hidden away in an underground safe and another covered in blankets inside a popcorn tin in the bathroom. Alongside the devices, police also found $600,000 (£517,197) in cash.

US Attorney Damian Williams said: “James Zhong committed wire fraud over a decade ago when he stole approximately 50,000 Bitcoin from Silk Road. For almost ten years, the whereabouts of this massive chunk of missing Bitcoin had ballooned into an over $3.3 billion mystery.

United States Department of Justice

“Thanks to state-of-the-art cryptocurrency tracing and good old-fashioned police work, law enforcement located and recovered this impressive cache of crime proceeds.

“This case shows that we won’t stop following the money, no matter how expertly hidden, even to a circuit board in the bottom of a popcorn tin.”

IRS-CI Special Agent in Charge Tyler Hatcher said: “Mr. Zhong executed a sophisticated scheme designed to steal bitcoin from the notorious Silk Road Marketplace. Once he was successful in his heist, he attempted to hide his spoils through a series of complex transactions which he hoped would be enhanced as he hid behind the mystery of the ‘darknet.’

United States Department of Justice

“IRS-CI Special Agents are the best in the world at following the money through cyberspace or wherever our financial investigations lead us. We will continue to work with our partners at the US Attorney’s Office to track down these criminals and bring them to justice.”

Earlier this year, it was reported that the founder of a Turkish cryptocurrency exchange service faces 40,564 years in jail after fleeing the country with $2billion (£1.7b) in 2021.

Faruk Faith Ozer, who founded Thodex, fled Turkey in April 2021 after stealing the cryptocurrency from around 400,000 clients.