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

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 8 BTC are part of the 119,756 BTC stolen by Ilya Lichtenstein, who was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison in 2024. According to court proceedings, the seized assets will be returned to Bitfinex in-kind, rather than being liquidated by the government. The exchange 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, with the exploit initially worth roughly $72 million. The US government holds bitcoin valued at about $24.54 billion, as well as other cryptocurrencies, as part of a national strategic bitcoin reserve.