- Bitfinex hackers, Lichtenstein and his wife’s prison sentence have come up for discussion.
- The exchange lost $6 billion worth of Bitcoins in the 2016 hack.
In an interesting turn of events, the hackers behind Bitfinex 2016 major hack penalties were discussed by the US government. The 2016 hack was an enormous security breach that caught market attention and has still been discussed. Several other security concerns have also risen in the past few months.
Notably, in a Tuesday court filing, the US government has advocated that the hacker Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan spend five years in prison for their illicit activities.
Following this, they recommended three years of supervised release, where the hacker stays under authorities’ patrol.
Additionally, the filing also stated that Lichtenstein must spend more time in prison than his rapper-wife. Morgan, who dubbed herself as the “Crocodile of Wall Street” was recommended for an 18-month prison time by prosecutors.
The Bitfinex hack witnessed a loss of $6 billion in funds that caused major havoc. In 2023, Liechtenstein and his wife pleaded guilty to money laundering the 120,000 Bitcoin from the hack. They were arrested in 2022, during which time authorities seized 95,000 of the stolen Bitcoins.
Following this, the government also recovered an additional $475 million lost in the Bitfinex hack. Additionally, Lichtenstein’s sentence has been reduced due to his cooperation with the government in other cases.
How Has Bitfinex Combated Security Issues?
Since the hack in 2016, Bitfinex has encountered other security-based challenges. In January 2024, the exchange’s CTO exhibited an XRP-related attack that was prevented. According to CTO Paolo Ardoino, a wallet attempting to transfer $15 billion worth of XRP was rejected, preventing the attack.
However, in the more recent May, the exchange once again faced a major data breach. According to reports, sensitive data of more than 40,000 customers were revealed. Despite such mishaps, the exchange has managed to retain its place within the crypto community. The recent recovery of funds from the 2016 hacks has also led to positive sentiments in the market.
However, during the hack, the crypto community faced major losses apart from Bitcoin’s price fluctuations caused by the incident.
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