Victims of the 2016 hack of the BitFinex crypto exchange can now breathe a sigh of relief. According to information from Bloomberg was the Exchange able to get funds back. According to US business magazine, Bitfinex has announced that it has successfully worked with authorities to recover approximately $315,000 in cash and cryptocurrencies stolen in 2016.
The US Department of Homeland Security was able to recover the funds as part of an ongoing prosecution of people linked to the hack. At the time, the theft included around 120,000 bitcoins worth around $72 million. At today’s Bitcoin rate, that would be around $3.6 billion.
Alleged perpetrators arrested in the past year
Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan and Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein, the suspected masterminds behind the hack, were arrested last year. Authorities accuse them of laundering billions of dollars in stolen bitcoin. In the course of the investigation, it became known that the FBI had seized over $3.6 billion in cryptocurrencies. The authorities had observed movements of a wallet associated with the hack and struck at the right moment. As Assistant Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced at the time, the action was the “largest seizure of funds by the Justice Department[s] ever”.
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Distribution via Bitfinex Revovery Right Tokens (RTT)
The recovered funds are now to be redistributed to Bitfinex Recovery Right Token (RRT) holders. The crypto exchange had issued these tokens to compensate victims. Anyone holding such tokens is entitled to cash out funds. However, since Bitfinex splits the recovered funds across a total of 30 million tokens, individuals will only get small amounts back.
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