- A Bitcoin Wallet, which is assigned with the Darknet market Nucleus, became active after nine years and has been active and transferred $ 77.5 million in three new addresses.
- The sudden activity raises the question of whether the original owner is behind it or someone else obtained access to the keys.
After almost a decade of silence, a Bitcoin wallet that is supposedly connected to the Darknet market Nucleus has reappeared. The wallet left a main credge of over $ 365 million after it was worth it on March 7, 2025 $ 77.5 million On three new addresses delay had.
The activity quickly raised rumors about the intended use of the money and whether the creator of the wallet is still active or whether someone else has been given access to it.
JUST IN: Nucleus Marketplace wakes up after 9 years with over $400 million in $BTCtransfers $77.5 million worth of coins to 3 new wallets. pic.twitter.com/TaPUThIWiO
— Whale Insider (@WhaleInsider) March 7, 2025
Nucleus Wallet: Sleeping giant woke up
Nucleus was once one of the largest Darknet markets on the Internet, ran until 2016 and then disappeared without a trace. In contrast to some other Darknet markets, which were closed by the law enforcement agencies, Nucleus disappeared without any noteworthy activities or public arrests.
Many wondered whether the operators had to give up the platform due to a different catastrophe or whether they had deliberately switched it off themselves.
After years of silence, the wallet connected to Nucleus has recently been active again. For this, two situations come into question: either the original owner has finally raised trust to access the money, or someone has found the secret keys for the wallet. Nevertheless, large financial movements of long inactive wallets usually indicate suspicious behavior.
Crypto crime on the advance again
Not only the nucleus wallet problem attracts attention, but also a number of important hacking events that have recently affected the crypto sector. With total loss of more than $ 1.5 billion at Ethereum, the Bybit crypto exchange experienced the biggest hack in the history of the industry in February 2025, as CNF reports.
The hackers broke into the company’s Cold Wallet and transferred the funds to other anonymous addresses. The CEO of Bybit, Ben Zhou, assured me that the company is still solvent and will pay for the damage.
Conversely, the focus is not only on stock exchanges, the networks of crypto money laundering continue to expand. The National Crime Agency (NCA) of the United Kingdom (UK) found a Russian crypto money laundering network in December 2024, which runs via crypto bonds, including Garantex.
This network, which is suspected of having washed billions of pounds of sterling over several transactions, finally led to the arrest of several people and the confiscation of assets.
Attacks on the crypto infrastructure
Hacks concern the technological basis of trade in digital assets as well as large stock exchanges or wallets. The company ADSPOWER, which specializes in the detection of browsers, became the victim of a rather sophisticated attack in January 2025.
With a malignant version that enabled them to steal the mnemotechnical phrases and private keys of users, the hackers replaced the company’s official plugin. As a result, more than $ 4.7 million of cryptocurrencies were stolen within a few days.
But that’s not all: In the Arbitrum network, too, 2025 began with an exploit against the defi-choice platform Moby. Due to a leak in the private key on January 8th, attackers were able to remove money from the website’s intelligent contract.
As a result, about $ 2.5 million disappeared into USDC, WESH and WBTC. In a rare case, however, an ethical hacker found a weak point in the contract of the main hacker and brought back about $ 1.5 million of the stolen funds.
