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

The US government has been active on the blockchain, transferring approximately $606,000 worth of bitcoin to Coinbase Prime. The transferred 8 BTC are linked to Ilya Lichtenstein, the perpetrator of the decade-old Bitfinex hack. According to on-chain data, these coins have a court-mandated destination. In 2025, federal proceedings led to the in-kind restitution of the seized assets to Bitfinex. The company plans to use the returned funds to fully redeem all outstanding Recovery Right Tokens and allocate at least 80% of the remaining net proceeds to repurchase and burn its UNUS SED LEO token. The 2016 hack involved Lichtenstein fraudulently authorizing over 2,000 transactions, transferring 119,756 BTC to a wallet under his control. The stolen coins were laundered through crypto mixers, darknets, and chain-hopping between coins. In 2022, investigators seized a portion of the stolen BTC, and in 2024, Lichtenstein was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison. The US government holds bitcoin valued at about $24.54 billion, ether at roughly $146 million, and several other cryptocurrencies.