US Government Transfers $606,000 in Bitcoin Linked to 2016 Bitfinex Hack to Coinbase

The US government has moved approximately $606,000 worth of bitcoin to Coinbase Prime, with on-chain data suggesting the transferred coins are linked to the 2016 Bitfinex hack. The transferred 8 BTC are part of the 119,756 BTC stolen by Ilya Lichtenstein, who was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison in 2024. The US government had seized a portion of the stolen BTC, then worth $3.6 billion, in 2022. According to federal proceedings in early 2025, the seized assets will be returned to Bitfinex in-kind, rather than being liquidated independently. Bitfinex plans to use the returned funds to redeem all outstanding Recovery Right Tokens and devote at least 80% of the remaining net proceeds to repurchasing and burning its UNUS SED LEO token. The 2016 hack saw Lichtenstein fraudulently authorize over 2,000 transactions, transferring 119,756 BTC to a wallet under his control, worth roughly $72 million at the time. The US government currently holds bitcoin valued at about $24.54 billion, as well as other cryptocurrencies.