U.S. authorities seize $ 3.6 billion worth of Bitcoin from a Bitfinex hack

U.S. officials are said to have seized $ 3.6 billion in Bitcoin linked to the 2016 Bitfinex hack.

94,000 BTC seized

In total, the hackers reportedly carried out more than 2,000 transactions to extract and hide 119,754 BTC from the exchange. Although the transactions have not been officially approved, it is now being sued that the bitcoins were transferred to a digital bitcoin wallet controlled by Liechtenstein.

Of these 119,754 BTCs, US law enforcement officials have now seized about 94,000 BTCs. One of the delegates said:

“After the court-approved orders, special agents were given access to the files of the online account operated by Liechtenstein. These files contain the private keys needed to access the digital wallet, which received the stolen money directly from Bitfinex, allowing special agents to legally seize and return 94,000 bitcoins.

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The biggest seizure to date

This would be the largest seizure of cryptocurrencies to date. It will also be one of the biggest cases under the new scheme to investigate crimes using digital assets.

In 2016, the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex was hacked and hackers were able to steal approximately 119,756 Bitcoins. At the then exchange rate, it came to almost $ 72 million. Today, that number is worth more than $ 2 billion in Bitcoins.