Incident reportExchange hackBitcoin
Bitfinex −$72M
119,756 BTC, a rap career, and a 2022 arrest.
What happened
Bitfinex lost 119,756 BTC, about $72 million at the time. Six years later, with bitcoin far higher, US authorities traced most of it.
Timeline
Aug 2, 2016
119,756 BTC are stolen.
Feb 2022
The US Justice Department seizes about 94,000 BTC and arrests a New York couple.
2023-24
Both plead guilty and are sentenced.
Aftermath
The seized bitcoin, worth billions by then, was the largest financial seizure in US Justice Department history at the time.
Date2016-08-02
Lost$72M
WhoIlya Lichtenstein, later arrested with his wife
Bitcoin was only $600 then.
Lesson The blockchain never forgets. It just waits.