Bitfinex To Receive Stolen Bitcoin From The 2016 Hack, Court Rules

A court has ruled that around 120,000 Bitcoin (BTC) seized from the 2016 Bitfinex hack will be returned to the exchange through in-kind restitution, according to a filing shared by DB News o X (formerly Twitter).

This decision follows years of legal and recovery efforts surrounding one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts in history.

As expected
*GOVT SAYS SEIZED BITCOIN FROM 2016 BITFINEX HACK SHOULD BE RETURNED IN-KIND
Do they just ask Paolo for the addy? https://t.co/8iwx6J1XR6 pic.twitter.com/ndNd1UrdWG
— db (@tier10k) January 15, 2025

The Bitfinex Hack

At the time of the theft, the stolen Bitcoin was worth approximately $71 million, with over 2,000 unauthorized transactions executed to transfer the funds. By the time of its seizure by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2022, its value had surged to $3.6 billion and has since increased to nearly $12 billion.

The hackers managed to exploit a vulnerability in Bitfinex’s multi-signature system. Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife, Heather Morgan, were arrested and charged with conspiracy to launder the stolen BTC, with Lichtenstein pleading guilty in August 2023. The hackers were sentenced in late 2024.

A month before Lichsteinstein’s plead, Bitfinex received $312,219 in cash and 6.917 Bitcoin Cash (BCH) from the US Department of Homeland Security for recovery efforts. These funds were allocated to redeem Recovery Right Tokens (RRT) issued to affected users after the hack.

In October 2024, approximately $20 million worth of cryptocurrency seized from the hack was moved from US government-controlled wallets. Since February 2022, law enforcement has recovered nearly $10 billion in stolen assets linked to the case.