US Transfers 8 BTC to Coinbase for Bitfinex Restitution

Federal authorities transferred approximately 8 Bitcoin, valued at around $606,000, to Coinbase Prime on Thursday, marking another step in the restitution process for funds stolen in the 2016 Bitfinex hack. The cryptocurrency traces directly to the breach orchestrated by Ilya Lichtenstein, who exploited a vulnerability in the exchange's multisignature wallet system.

Blockchain analytics firm Arkham identified the transaction, linking the coins to the theft of 119,756 Bitcoin from Bitfinex on August 2, 2016. At the time, the stolen amount was worth about $72 million. With Bitcoin trading near $74,000 per unit currently, that quantity would now be valued at roughly $8.9 billion. Lichtenstein, working with his wife Heather Morgan, spent more than five years attempting to launder the proceeds through methods including cryptocurrency mixers, darknet markets, cross-chain transfers and purchases of physical gold.

In February 2022, FBI investigators decrypted files from Lichtenstein's cloud storage, uncovering a spreadsheet with over 2,000 private keys that granted access to nearly all the stolen funds. Authorities seized about 94,636 Bitcoin, then worth $3.6 billion. Lichtenstein was...