Wagner chief allegedly left 94,693 bitcoins in crypto wallet

As discussions continue regarding the causes of the plane crash in which he died on Wednesday August 23, 2023, Yevgeny Prigozhin – the leader of the Wagner mercenary army – is once again at the center of a rumor. The late Russian billionaire reportedly left behind a wallet containing a huge amount of BTC. We are talking about 94,693 BTC, the equivalent of 2.6 billion dollars, the 5th largest bitcoin wallet in the world! Our editorial team dug deeper to find out more. Here’s what we found.

In short

• Yevgeny Prigozhin, late leader of the Wagner mercenary army, is allegedly linked to a bitcoin wallet containing 94,693 BTC, or approximately $2.6 billion.
• Rumors suggest that Wagner used this wallet for anonymous border transactions, including paying his mercenaries in Africa.
• Although Prigozhin may have been involved in these transactions, the wallet in question actually originated from a 2016 Bitfinex hack and is owned by the US government.

A wallet containing 94,693 BTC belonging to Prigozhin now lost?

A few days after the announcement of the tragic death of the head of the Wagner mercenary army, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in a plane crash which claimed the lives of 10 people, information circulates about a bitcoin wallet allegedly associated with a military contractor with ties to Russia.

With a total of 94,693 BTC worth around $2.6 billion, more than Russia’s 2022 GDP, this wallet is the 5^e largest bitcoin wallet in the world. 70% of these BTC would be kept in cold wallets, while the rest would be split between Binance and BTC-W.

So was Prigozhin a BTC user? Quite possible. In fact, at the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war, US and European sanctions had caused payment companies such as Visa and MasterCard to leave Russia. Wagner is rumored to have used bitcoin to make anonymous border transactions to pay his mercenaries deployed in Africa. Should we deduce that Wagner is the owner of this huge amount of bitcoins?

The 94,693 bitcoins allegedly came from a hack of the crypto exchange BitFinex

While several elements suggest that Prigozhin was involved in bitcoin transactions, we cannot certify that the fifth largest bitcoin portfolio is his.

Indeed, in February 2023, those responsible for the 2016 Bitfinex exchange hack arrested by American justice admitted to having transferred 94,643 BTC from the hack into a wallet.

The said wallet was then confiscated by the American government which currently holds the key to it as indicated by blockchain analysis platforms such as Arkham and oxt.me and the declarations and reports of the United States Department of Justice on the seizure.

Clearly, we know the owner of the crypto wallet with 94,693 BTC. Wagner’s late boss might have had to do bitcoin transactions, but he is not the holder.