Bitcoin Scammer May Have Stolen $100M

At this point, it's one of the largest thefts in history—and one of the most convoluted. Some person, or group, apparently made off with 96,000 Bitcoins worth a staggering $100 million, reports the Verge. The Bitcoins came from users of the underground bazaar called Sheep Marketplace, one of the successors to the shuttered Silk Road site. The cyber-thieves managed to drain users' accounts over the course of a week, and nobody was the wiser because they did so while keeping fake balance statements up, reports the New Statesman.

Many of those who got bilked are on Reddit sharing information and trying to track down the money. "Many believe the heist was a scam, and the No. 1 suspect among Redditors is the Sheep Marketplace administrator, a Czech citizen named Tomáš Jirikovský," reports Mashable. The New Statesman article has details on the world of Bitcoin laundering—it's called "tumbling"—with this intriguing line: "Right now, as you’re reading this, you can watch as the thief starts trying to move their Bitcoins on again—it’s currently down to 92,000 Bitcoins and dropping as smaller chunks begin going out." In the meantime, Sheep Marketplace has shut down. (More bitcoin stories.)