US government transfers $922m in Bitcoin from seized Bitfinex hack funds

The U.S. government allegedly transferred Bitcoin (BTC) from two wallets that contained funds confiscated in the 2016 Bitfinex hack.

According to Arkham Intelligence, on Feb. 28, from approximately 18:39 UTC to 19:55 UTC, U.S. authorities transferred almost a billion dollars worth of Bitcoin in four transactions.

First, the wallet transferred 1 BTC worth $60,200 (at the time of the transaction). The U.S. government then moved another 2,817 BTC worth approximately $172.74 million to unknown addresses.

Then, less than an hour later, from another wallet, the government transferred 0.01 BTC and 12,267 BTC, worth about $748.46 million, in two transactions. This brought the aggregate volume to approximately $922 million at the transfer time.

The U.S. government is considered one of the largest Bitcoin whales. According to Arkham Intelligence, it has just over 200,000 BTC on its balance sheet, worth $12.44 billion. Of this, about 94,600 BTC are assets confiscated due to the Bitfinex platform hack, according to 21.co.

During the Bitfinex hack in 2016, hackers stole almost 120,000 BTC. In February 2019, the U.S. authorities returned more than 27,000 BTC to the exchange, converted them into dollars, and paid them to holders of RRT (Recovery Right Token) tokens.

The person behind the attack, Ilya Lichtenstein, admitted to infiltrating Bitfinex’s security systems over an extended period. The motive behind Lichtenstein’s decision to target Bitfinex in 2016 was reportedly linked to the challenges he faced with his technology startup in San Francisco.