The Silk Road hacker who stole over 50,000 BTC pleaded guilty and was sentenced to one year and one day in prison

ChainCatcher news, according to The Block, 32-year-old James Zhong from Gainesville, Georgia, is accused of deceiving the withdrawal processing system of illegal markets by creating rapid transactions using nine accounts, stealing over 50,000 bitcoins from the Silk Road market operated by Ross Ulbricht. Zhong pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and was sentenced to one year and one day in prison. (The illegally obtained bitcoins have been officially confiscated)

It is reported that the theft in this case occurred between 2011 and 2013, when the price of bitcoin was far lower than today, with a single bitcoin priced at less than $800 at the end of 2013, significantly below its current market price of about $30,000. Authorities conducted a raid on Zhong's home on November 9, 2021, when the price of bitcoin was nearing its historical high of $69,000. When federal authorities took control of the stolen bitcoins (including the initial seizure and two voluntary forfeitures after Zhong's arrest), the total value of these bitcoins had reached $3.4 billion. Even recently at the time of his sentencing, their value still exceeded $1.57 billion. (source link)