Federal law enforcement in the United States arrested a 21-year-old man from Florida for involvement in the dissemination of malicious software through online games and for stealing assets from user-encrypted wallets. According to the FBI, the group had infected approximately 800 million devices over the past two years, invaded about 80 encrypted wallets and stole at least $220,000.
The game involved appears in Steam Investigation Medium
The prosecution file did not directly name the platform, but referred to it as a “popular digital distribution software company”. However, the PirateFi, Block Blasters, Dashverse and Lunara games listed in the document have all appeared before the FBI's Seattle office's publicly disclosed Steam malware investigation.
According to the FBI, eight games with malicious procedures were online between May 2024 and February 2026 and promoted through Discord, Telegram, X and LinkedIn. After being downloaded and installed by the user, the malicious program collects private data and login documents in the equipment and is used to find information that can be accessed into the victims ' encrypted accounts.
Investigation points to Sibel.eth identity
According to the investigators, the suspect was associated with the identity of “Sibel.eth” and contacted an unnamed major developer through the encryption communication software Signal. According to the prosecution documents, the parties had discussed how to induce the victim to approve the transaction and to clear the wallets promptly after authorization.
Law enforcement also stated that suspects had spent $10,000 on remote control of wooden horses. The investigators then tracked the movement of the bitcoin involved and found that part of the money was used to purchase more than 150 gift cards in Bitrefill, most of which related to Uber Eats. The law enforcement authorities then link the accounts to the suspect ' s address and the school address by means of summonses.
Recovered equipment and wallet notes
During a previous search of his house, law enforcement officers seized several devices and found three sets of wallets, including a group of Monroe purses. The investigation also revealed that approximately US$ 38.2 million of funds had been diverted from the suspect ' s history of encrypted transactions.
This arrest was considered to be the first indictment by the FBI since the opening of the investigation in March this year. At the time, the FBI had called on the players in the Steam game to report the incident. Of particular interest, PirateFi has attracted about 7000 players to download in the name of free survival games, was dropped off by Valve and recommended that users reload their computer systems.
Additional information:Another widely mentioned Block Blasters stole more than US$ 32 million of the encrypted assets of a anchor in a live broadcast last September. Researchers estimate that the game stole about $150,000 from hundreds of users.