According to Arkham Intelligence, Bitcoin wallets belonging to the infamous Nucleus dark web marketplace were recently activated after nine years of inactivity.
The wallets in question have transferred $77.5 million worth of Bitcoin to three new wallets.
Nucleus continues to hold roughly $365 million worth of BTC, according to Arkham.
Nucleus, which was mainly known for selling illegal drugs, abruptly ceased its activities in April 2016. The popular website suddenly became unresponsive, with vendors quickly migrating to other sites in a state of panic.
In 2015, the website temporarily went offline after an alleged hacking incident, with its admits insisting that they were definitely not running away.
After Nucleus eventually vanished a year later, multiple theories emerged about what actually happened to the infamous marketplace. Some assumed that this was simply an “exit scam,” which seemed to be the most obvious explanation.
Some also assumed that the marketplace was brought down by another hacking incident.
Another theory suggested that the marketplace got busted by authorities. Prior to to the disappearance, the alleged admins of the marketplace claimed that their servers had been confiscated by Interpol.
The sudden activation of the Bitcoin wallets associated with the marketplace has revived this mystery. Their Bitcoin wallets have remained untouched until today.
Some users have joked that these coins are now moving to the recently established strategic Bitcoin reserve in the U.S.
Source: https://u.today/darknet-marketplace-wallets-suddenly-activated-after-nine-years-of-inactivity