There are some **fascinating and high-profile cases** where **Bitcoin tracing played a key role** in busting darknet markets, hackers, money launderers, child exploitation rings, and even ransomware actors. Here’s a breakdown of the **most famous cases**, plus direct links to **articles, court documents, and reports** so you can dig deeper. --- ## 🧨 1. [[Silk Road]] & [[Ross Ulbricht]] (2013–2020) **Summary:** Ross Ulbricht operated Silk Road, a darknet marketplace for drugs and more, transacted entirely in Bitcoin. Blockchain tracing and a few OPSEC mistakes led to his downfall. 🔗 **Wired: The Untold Story of Silk Road** https://www.wired.com/2015/04/silk-road-1/ --- ## 🧨 **2. Welcome to Video (2019)** **Summary:** A global bust of a child pornography site based in South Korea. Hundreds of buyers were arrested after Bitcoin payments were traced to KYC’d exchanges. --- ## 🧨 **3. Colonial Pipeline Ransomware (2021)** **Summary:** Ransomware attack forced a major U.S. pipeline offline. $4.4M ransom was paid in Bitcoin—$2.3M was recovered after FBI traced the funds. 🔗 **BBC Report on Bitcoin Recovery:** [https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57394025](https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57394025) --- ## 🧨 **4. Twitter Hack & Bitcoin Scam (2020)** **Summary:** Teen hackers took over verified Twitter accounts to run a BTC scam. Despite obfuscation, blockchain tracing identified the culprits. --- ## 🧨 **5. AlphaBay Market Takedown (2017)** **Summary:** AlphaBay was Silk Road’s successor, eventually shut down by law enforcement. Its founder, Alexandre Cazes, was identified using email and BTC wallet tracing. --- ## 🧨 **6. Helix Mixer Operator Busted (2020)** **Summary:** Larry Harmon ran Helix, a Bitcoin mixing service laundering over $300M. Chainalysis helped show connections to dark web markets. --- ## 🧨 **7. Mt. Gox Hack Funds Move (2023)** **Summary:** Dormant Bitcoin from the Mt. Gox hack suddenly moved in 2023, triggering alerts across blockchain tracing tools. --- ## 🧨 **Bonus: Lazarus Group & North Korea (Ongoing)** **Summary:** North Korean hackers (Lazarus Group) have stolen billions in crypto. Blockchain firms like Elliptic and Chainalysis actively trace their laundering activity. --- ## 🧰 Bonus Tools to Trace Bitcoin Yourself Here are some free tools if you want to dig into wallets or transactions manually: - 🔍 **Blockchain Explorer (Blockchain.com):** https://www.blockchain.com/explorer - 🔍 **OXT (by Samourai Wallet):** [https://oxt.me](https://oxt.me) - 🔍 **WalletExplorer (for clustering):** [https://www.walletexplorer.com](https://www.walletexplorer.com) - 🔍 **Blockchair (multi-chain explorer):** [https://www.blockchair.com](https://www.blockchair.com) ---