Coinbase CEO Believes FBI ‘Accidentally’ Disclosed Its Cryptocurrency Wallets
The FBI created “NexFundAI” in pursuit of cryptocurrency criminals, but its wallet address and assets were recently leaked. Several tokens, including Pornrocket, EthereumMax, BONE and memecoins, are held in the FBI wallet. The FBI is accused of copying OpenZeppelin code without proper attribution, which violates the MIT smart contract license.
The Department of Justice reports that the FBI created the “NexFundAI” token as part of an operation targeting cryptocriminals. Recently, the FBI’s wallet address was leaked. This revealed several other tokens that the FBI owns.
The FBI has accused several individuals and organizations of fraud and market manipulation through the use of tokens in its investigations.
Variety of Tokens in FBI Wallet
Coinbase executive Conor Grogan has identified the address of the wallet used by the FBI. He discovered it contained tokens including EthereumMax, BONE, and various Memecoins, all Ethereum blockchain:
“I’m not sure if the FBI realized this, but they doxxed their wallets. Shortly after it was deployed, the wallet that doxxed the FBI wallet deployed capital to several other wallets, making dozens of transactions. The FBI wallets own at least 75% of the token supply as far as I can tell,” said Conor.
Conor also discovered 1.734 billion Pornrocket tokens in a wallet associated with the FBI. Additionally, Conor found the FBI wallet address made multiple transactions on Tokenlon, Binance, Zixipay, and HTX. More than $39,600 in cryptocurrency is currently held at this address. “The FBI is long ETH,” Conor commented.
Furthermore, chain analyst Cygaar found that the FBI used code from the OpenZeppelin library without proper attribution, and called it a copyright infringement:
“Hello FBI, I have noticed that your smart contracts are in direct violation of the MIT license and are therefore subject to copyright infringement. You have clearly copied and pasted several of the OpenZeppelin libraries (which use the MIT license), but you have no license in the code itself. The MIT License states that ‘this permission notice must be included in all copies or substantial portions of the software’, which you clearly failed to do in your contracts,” Cygaar said.
FBI Deploys NexFundAI for Crime Prevention
The FBI developed a crypto token called “NexFundAI” as part of the operation, according to a DOJ announcement. In an effort to gather evidence of illegal activity, it then hired market makers to manipulate the token’s market.
NexFundAI is an ERC-20 token that was created at the end of May 2024, with a total supply of more than 98 billion. After the token’s launch, the FBI orchestrated multiple transactions that were plotted on a “bubble map” to draw suspects in.
The FBI hired firms like Gotbit, ZM Quant, and CLS Global as market makers to engage in wash trading-where traders buy and sell the same asset to artificially inflate its price or liquidity. All three firms have since pleaded guilty:
“What the FBI has uncovered in this case is essentially a new twist on old-school financial crime… The FBI took the unprecedented step of creating its own token and cryptocurrency company to identify, disrupt and bring these alleged fraudsters to justice,” said Jodi Cohe, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Boston Division.
The FBI also announced that investors who have traded a token related to this investigation can contact the FBI for more information via a reporting form.
By Audy Castaneda