Bitfinex may be the only victim of the $7.4 billion Bitcoin heist: the US government.

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Bitfinex may be the only entity eligible for restitution following the 2016 Bitcoin hack in which hackers stole about 120,000 Bitcoins, worth about $7.4 billion at current prices, according to a legal motion filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office US for the District of Columbia.

The government, however, is not sure if there are other individual victims who may be eligible for victim’s rights or restitution. Due to the difficulty of identifying all potential victims, they are asking the court for permission to use alternative methods to notify potential victims of the hack.

“The government is not aware of any person who qualifies as a victim under the CVRA or for restitution under the MVRA, other than perhaps Bitfinex, the virtual currency exchange for victims,” the filing wrote, “but seeks such relief from an abundance of caution. , to provide notice to members of the public – particularly former VCE Victim account holders – and to provide them with an opportunity to advance potential claims for victim’s rights and/or restitution under the CVRA, the Mandatory Victim Restitution Act (MVRA) . ) and related statutes.”

The CVRA gives certain rights to victims of federal crimes, including notice and the opportunity to be heard in court. Victims are also entitled to full and timely restitution, as provided by law.

Through the filing, the government seeks to inform any potential victims of the crime and give them an opportunity to assert their rights or seek restitution.

Bitcoin has skyrocketed over 10,000% since the Bitfinex hack

The 2016 Bitfinex hack is one of the biggest security exploits in crypto history. At the time of the incident, the stolen Bitcoin was valued at approximately $71 million. Bitcoin has surged more than 10,000% since the hack, now trading at around $62,000, according to CoinGecko data.

The identity of the hackers was not immediately known, but it was later revealed that Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Rhiannon Morgan were behind the money laundering conspiracy related to the hack. Lichtenstein admitted to being the executor.

Following the hack, Bitfinex controversially reduced the balances of all customer accounts by 36% to share the losses. In return, the exchange issued BFX tokens to customers, who could then sell, redeem or exchange them for shares in Bitfinex’s parent company, iFinex. As of April 2017, all BFX tokens have been redeemed.

US authorities were able to recover a substantial portion of the stolen Bitcoin. In February 2022, they seized more than 94,000 BTC related to the hack after decrypting files held by Lichtenstein that contained wallet addresses and private keys associated with the stolen funds.

Subsequent recovery efforts were also successful. Bitfinex said in July 2023 that it received approximately $312,219 in cash and 6,917 Bitcoin Cash (BCH) from the US Department of Homeland Security.

The exchange plans to use these recovered funds to buy back right-of-recovery tokens (RRT) issued after the hack and plans to allocate up to 80% of all remaining assets to holders of its native token, UNUS SED LEO.

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