On February 28th, the United States government executed the transfer of $922 million worth of Bitcoin from two cryptocurrency wallets, which had been holding funds seized from Bitfinex in 2016. Interestingly, this transaction coincided with Bitcoin surpassing the $60,000 mark for the first time in over two years. In the 24 hours leading up to 9:45 pm UTC, Bitcoin surged by 5.52%, reaching a trading price of $62,507, marking a remarkable 20% increase over the past week.
The transfer process began with a small test transaction of 1 Bitcoin, equivalent to $60,200 during the transfer, at 3:39 pm on February 28th. Subsequently, the labeled government wallet executed three more transactions: one worth 2,817 Bitcoin ($172.74 million), another worth 0.01 Bitcoin ($613.35), and a third worth 12,267 Bitcoin ($748.46 million), according to data from Arkham Intelligence.
The US government had seized these funds in 2016 following a hack of Bitfinex, which resulted in the loss of approximately 119,754 BTC, valued at over $7.4 billion at the current market price.
This transaction came on the heels of revelations from Ilya Lichtenstein, a hacker involved in stealing and laundering over $4.5 billion worth of Bitcoin from the Bitfinex exchange. Lichtenstein appeared in a Washington court on February 27th, detailing the intricate details of one of the largest Bitcoin heists in the world. He admitted to having access to Bitfinex’s systems for several months and hacking individual accounts on other exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken.
Lichtenstein and his wife, Heather Morgan, were apprehended in February 2022. They were accused of conspiring to launder $4.5 billion in hacked Bitcoin, resulting in the largest financial seizure in history, with the US government confiscating $3.6 billion. An additional $475 million worth of Bitcoin was seized on August 3rd, 2022.
In August 2023, Lichtenstein and his wife pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy charges related to the Bitfinex hack. Their story has garnered significant attention, with reports indicating that Amazon is in the process of producing a movie inspired by their exploits, drawing comparisons to “Bitcoin’s Bonnie and Clyde” as portrayed in a 2022 article in The New York Times.
