A recent ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia indicates that Bitfinex is likely the sole entity eligible for restitution concerning the 119,754 BTC that was stolen during the notorious 2016 hack.
This development comes on the heels of Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Rhiannon Morgan pleading guilty to charges of money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the U.S., stemming from their actions in 2022.
The pair allegedly used advanced hacking techniques to breach Bitfinex’s systems, executing over 2,000 transactions to transfer the stolen Bitcoin into a personal wallet. They then attempted to launder these funds, even converting a portion into gold coins that Morgan reportedly buried.
Following their February 2022 arrest, law enforcement has recovered around 95,000 stolen BTC, valued at about $5.89 billion, in addition to $475 million in related assets. These cryptocurrencies are currently held in an FBI-controlled wallet.
Despite the significant theft, the U.S. government has revealed that it does not recognize any other potential victims besides Bitfinex under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act. This conclusion likely stems from the fact that Bitfinex had previously issued “BFX” tokens to affected customers, all of which were redeemed by April 2017, implying that no other victims remain eligible for restitution.
The first week of July brings several important developments in the United States that could influence both traditional markets and the cryptocurrency sector.
Ric Edelman, one of the most influential voices in personal finance, has radically revised his stance on crypto allocation. After years of cautious optimism, he now believes that digital assets deserve a far larger share in investment portfolios than ever before.
In the case involving Terraform Labs and its co-founder Do Hyeong Kwon, the defense has asked the Federal Court for the Southern District of New York to extend the deadline for pretrial filings by two weeks, pushing it beyond the original date of July 1, 2025.
Coinbase has emerged as the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 for June, climbing 43% amid a surge of bullish momentum driven by regulatory clarity, product innovation, and deeper institutional interest in crypto.