Feds find $3.3 billion stolen bitcoin in a popcorn tin 10 years later 

The U.S. Department of Justice found $3.3 billion worth of bitcoins inside a popcorn tin after ten years of looking for it, according to a press release from the department. 

James Zhong, 32, pleaded guilty last week to wire fraud, after having exploited a loophole in the payment structure of the dark web marketplace Silk Road in September 2012.

Ten years later, authorities found the stolen 50,676 bitcoins in USB sticks hidden in various devices at Zhong’s home in Gainesville, Georgia. 

The DOJ said the cryptocurrency was “in an underground floor safe; and on a single-board computer that was submerged under blankets in a popcorn tin stored in a bathroom closet.”

According to the DOJ, the finding was the second-largest financial seizure in history. 

“For almost ten years, the whereabouts of this massive chunk of missing bitcoin had ballooned into an over $3.3 billion mystery,” said US Attorney Damian Williams.

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

“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,” he added. 

Silk Road was shut down in 2013 after becoming the world’s largest online marketplace for drugs, weapons, and other illicit goods. Its founder, Ross Ulbricht, is serving a life sentence in federal prison. 

Zhong is facing up to 20 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced on February 22, 2023.