According to Cointelegraph: On the same day that Bitcoin surpassed $60,000 for the first time in over two years, the United States government transferred a substantial $922 million worth of Bitcoin from two cryptocurrency wallets. These wallets held funds confiscated from Bitfinex in 2016.
According to data from Arkham Intelligence, the transfers initiated with a test transaction of one Bitcoin, valued at approximately $60,200 at the time, on February 28. This was followed by the government-titled wallet sending out three additional transactions, totaling 2,817 Bitcoin ($172.74 million), 0.01 Bitcoin ($613.35), and 12,267 Bitcoin ($748.46 million).
The government apprehended these funds in 2016 following Bitfinex's hefty hack involving roughly 119,754 BTC, currently valued over $7.4 billion.
These transactions coincided with Ilya Lichtenstein, a hacker who pilfered and laundered over $4.5 billion worth of Bitcoin from Bitfinex, appearing in court in Washington. In detailing his deeds, Lichtenstein admitted to infiltrating Bitfinex's systems for months and targeting individual accounts on other exchanges, including Coinbase and Kraken.
Lichtenstein and his rapper wife, Heather Morgan (aka Razzlekhan), were arrested in February 2022 for allegedly conspiring to launder $4.5 billion in hacked Bitcoin. The US government managed to seize $3.6 billion, marking the largest financial confiscation ever recorded. Later, in August 2022, an additional $475 million worth of Bitcoin was also seized.
The couple pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy connected to the Bitfinex hack in August 2023. Their thrilling tale is now reportedly set to become a movie, courtesy of Amazon, with the storyline rumored to drawn from a 2022 New York Times article that dubbed them "Bitcoin's Bonnie and Clyde."
