Bitfinex Recovers $314K from US Homeland Security After 2016 Hack

The announcement on July 6, made by crypto exchange platform Bitfinex, stated that the platform recovered $312,219.71 in cash and 6.917 in Bitcoin Cash for the 2016 hack from the United States Department of Homeland Security. The United States Customs and Border Protection cooperated to seize the funds, and the remaining recovery is underway through ongoing efforts.

Bitfinex staff stated the following concerning the seizing,

“This is part of Bitfinex’s ongoing efforts, working with law enforcement and other investigation agencies, to recover assets stolen from the exchange in August 2016. The US government continues to make progress in prosecuting individuals involved in the Bitfinex security breach and in seizing funds associated with the theft.”

The Recovery Procedure

The 2016 Bitfinex hack victims will receive their funds and assets on a pro-rata basis. After the breach in 2016, the platform issued Recovery Right Tokens (RRTs) of $1 each par value.

Currently, $30 million RRTs are circulating in the market. Once the RRTs are redeemed with recovered assets, the remainder will be apportioned to Unus Sed Leo token holders, which is Bitfinex’s native token.

Overview of the 2016 Bitfinex Case

Bitfinex suffered a security breach in 2016, causing a loss of 119,576 customers’ Bitcoin BTC $30,176. These were valued at around $70 million at the time and $3.7 billion now.

February 8, 2022, marked the date when the US judiciary arrested two individuals, Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife, Heather Morgan. They were alleged to have conspired to launder cryptocurrency via hacking.

Special agents were then tasked to capture over 94,000 stolen BTC from these individuals after getting the search warrant that allowed them to display files, including private keys for the suspects’-owned wallets. The funds are still under recovery after this discovery.

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