Key Points
- The US government has moved $922 million in Bitcoin, seized from Bitfinex in 2016.
- The transfer coincides with Bitcoin reaching $60,000 for the first time in over two years.
The US government has recently moved a significant amount of Bitcoin from two cryptocurrency wallets. These wallets contained funds that were seized from Bitfinex in 2016.
The fund transfer was carried out on the same day that Bitcoin crossed the $60,000 mark for the first time in over two years, on February 28. Bitcoin’s value increased by 5.52% in the 24 hours leading up to 9:45 pm UTC, trading at $62,507. This marks an over 20% increase in the past week for the world’s premier cryptocurrency.
Details of the Transfer
The initial test transfer was a single Bitcoin, worth $60,200 at the time of transfer, which occurred at 3:39 pm UTC on February 28. Following this, the government wallet sent out a series of transactions. These included a transfer of 2,817 Bitcoin ($172.74 million), a small transfer of 0.01 Bitcoin ($613.35), and a large transfer of 12,267 Bitcoin ($748.46 million), as per data from Arkham Intelligence.
The funds in question were seized in 2016 after Bitfinex was hacked. The hack resulted in a loss of approximately 119,754 BTC, which is currently valued at over $7.4 billion.
Context of the Transfer
The fund transfers were made a day after Ilya Lichtenstein, a hacker who stole and laundered over $4.5 billion worth of Bitcoin from Bitfinex, appeared in court. Lichtenstein detailed his methods in a Washington court, revealing how he managed to pull off one of the largest Bitcoin heists in history.
Lichtenstein reportedly had access to Bitfinex’s systems for several months. During this period, he hacked individual accounts at other exchanges, including Coinbase and Kraken.
Lichtenstein and his wife, Heather Morgan, were arrested in February 2022. The US government accused them of conspiring to launder $4.5 billion in stolen Bitcoin. The government seized $3.6 billion of this, marking the largest financial seizure in history. An additional $475 million worth of Bitcoin was seized on August 3.
In August 2023, Lichtenstein and his wife pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy in connection with the Bitfinex hack. It has been reported that Amazon is planning to make a movie about the Bitfinex money launderers, drawing inspiration from a 2022 New York Times article that dubbed the couple “Bitcoin’s Bonnie and Clyde.”