Bitfinex Hack Recovery

A story about how the Department of Justice solved a major 2016 cryptocurrency hack and arrested a couple trying to launder billions in stolen Bitcoin.

"In 2016, this crypto exchange called Bitfinex got hacked. About 120,000 Bitcoin got stolen, worth $70 million at the time. It was bad - the price of Bitcoin dropped 40% that week. Because Bitcoin is on a public ledger, everyone could see the coins and other exchanges agreed not to let them cash out the money.

For many years, that money sat in those wallets, moving in small transactions between different wallets as someone tried to launder it. Fast forward five and a half years to last week - people started noticing bigger transactions from the Bitfinex hack wallets.

The Department of Justice kicked down a door in New York into this husband and wife couple's house. They looked like average, clean-cut people. They seized their computers, found burner cell phones, $50,000 in cash, hardware wallets with the Bitcoin, and folders on their computers with fake passport ideas and places to run away to.

They seized $3.5 billion worth of Bitcoin because the price had gone up so much from the original $70 million. They don't think these people were the original hackers, but they were trying to launder the money. The couple was trying to get the money out through small transactions like Walmart gift cards and PlayStation games, but they could never move the bulk of the money."