Key Points
- The U.S. government has reportedly moved approximately $922 million in Bitcoin from wallets containing funds confiscated from a 2016 Bitfinex hack.
- Heather Morgan and Ilya Lichtenstein pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy related to the Bitfinex hack in 2023.
The U.S. government seems to have relocated around $922 million in Bitcoin from two digital wallets. These wallets contained funds impounded from a 2016 hack of the cryptocurrency trading platform Bitfinex.
Transfer Details
According to data from Arkham Intelligence, one wallet initially moved 1 Bitcoin ($60,200) on a Wednesday afternoon. Subsequently, it transferred an additional 2817 Bitcoin valued at approximately $172.74 million to undisclosed addresses.
On the same day, a second wallet transferred 0.01 Bitcoin and 12,267 Bitcoin, valued at roughly $748.46 million. This brought the collective value of the Bitcoin transfers from the two wallets to around $922 million.
The U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment. These wallets contained the funds confiscated in a Bitfinex hack that took place in 2016.
Legal Proceedings
In August 2023, tech entrepreneur and rapper Heather Morgan, also known as ‘Razzlekhan’, and her husband Ilya Lichtenstein admitted to a money laundering conspiracy associated with the 2016 Bitfinex hack. The Department of Justice stated in August that it seized about 95,000 of the stolen Bitcoin from digital wallets under the defendants’ control.
The transfers happened amid a surge in Bitcoin prices. Bitcoin briefly touched $64,000 on certain exchanges the day before falling back to around $60,000. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was trading at $61,515 at 10 a.m. Hong Kong time.