Credit: rc.xyz NFT gallery

FBI has arrested a 21-year-old Florida man after he was caught stealing around $220,000 of cryptocurrency through malware hidden in video games.

The 21-year-old, who used the alias “Sibel.eth,” but whose real name is Zyaire Dontaevious Zamarion Wilkins, was arrested on July 14th and subsequently charged with conspiracy to obtain information by computer for private financial gain.

The charge, which can carry up to a decade in federal prison, relates to the scheme he allegedly helped run, which smuggled crypto-stealing malware into video games.

The operation reportedly kicked off in May 2024 and ran through to February 2026. It infected around 8,000 devices and siphoned money out of around 80 crypto wallets.

The young hacker allegedly didn’t build the malware himself; instead, he financed and procured it from a primary developer. From there, he handled the distribution and marketing of the eight video game titles that he would target.

Though the specific games containing the malware were not named in the official report, as per Yahoo, Wilkins’ group marketed the titles across Discord, Telegram, X, and LinkedIn.

Unsuspecting gamers would download what they believed to be digital entertainment; instead, the bug gave Wilkins direct access to their digital wallets.

According to official documents, the FBI tracked Wilkins to approximately $382,000 in total cryptocurrency transaction volume, though they can only provide that the stolen amount from the victims totals around $220,000.

The FBI was able to unmask the young hacker by following the Bitcoin utilised by the team to Bitrefill, where it was spent on over 150 gift cards, mostly for Uber Eats. A subsequent subpoena to Uber linked those cards to an account that included several deliveries to Wilkins’ home and his University of West Florida addresses.

A week before his arrest, police searched Wilkins’ North Lauderdale home and found several devices containing key evidence. At that time, Wilkins refused to talk.