- $314,000 worth of cash and cryptocurrencies from the Bitfinex hack have been recovered
- Bitfinex was hacked for 120,000 bitcoins in 2016
- The money will go to creditors, who will receive around one cent each
Bitfinex yesterday announced the retrieval of $314,000 worth of cryptocurrencies and cash stolen in the 2016 hack on the exchange. The company revealed in a blog post how it had worked with the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to recover the funds which will be distributed to creditors through Bitfinex’s Recovery Right Tokens (RRT) which were handed out to them after the hack.
119,756 Bitcoin Stolen
119,756 bitcoin were stolen during the 2016 hack, with smaller sums recovered over time until the sensational arrest of self-styled entrepreneur and Forbes writer Heather Morgan and blockchain investor Ilya Lichtenstein in February 2022 on suspicion of conspiring to launder the stolen bitcoins. The private keys for the ₿94,000 still left in the wallet that originally received the stolen bitcoin were stored on a retail cloud storage service in plain text.
Bitfinex said that the recovery of the funds was a result of a collaborative effort between itself, law enforcement and investigative agencies with the seizure operation conducted by US Customs and Border Protection, an enforcement agency under the DHS.
Paolo Ardoino, Chief Technology Officer of Bitfinex, praised the efforts of those concerned:
We are extremely pleased to be able to reach another successful milestone in the recovery of assets stolen from Bitfinex in 2016. This specific seizure demonstrates the commitment of law enforcement officials to diligently track all the proceeds of the crime committed against Bitfinex almost seven years ago. We look forward to recovering as much of the stolen bitcoin as we possibly can and redistributing that to holders of the tokens that were issued in response to the hack in 2016.
The cash will be redistributed to RRT holders, but seeing as there are 30 million in circulation, each token will attract just over one cent for its holder.
