Today Bitfinex announced that it has recovered another 6.51458211 BTC that were stolen during a hack in 2016.
BTC recovered from hack at Bitfinex
In 2019, 27.66270285 BTC had already been recovered thanks to an investigation carried out by the US government.
During 2020, those still in the possession of the thieves were moved several times, and it is possible that by tracking these movements they were eventually able to intercept them.
In the latter case, the recovery was carried out thanks to the cooperation of the Poloniex exchange, which detected the deposit of BTC from the 2016 thieves on its wallets, and was able to return 6,51458211 BTC to Bitfinex.
Now holders of Bitfinex’s Recovery Right Tokens (RRT) will receive the recovered funds in proportion to the number of RRT held, over the next few days. Since the price of BTC at the time of the recovery was $47,337, a total of approximately $308,000 will be returned.
The hack against Bitfinex
Nevertheless, it has to be said that the BTC stolen in 2016 amounted to 120,000, so only a small part has been recovered so far. However, back then the price of BTC was around $550, so their total value was around $66 million.
Bitfinex has been cooperating with law enforcement since 2016 by providing information useful to the investigation, and will continue to work together to try to recover the remaining BTC.
After the theft, the exchange chose to spread the losses across all accounts by crediting BFX tokens at a ratio of 1:1 for every dollar lost. Within eight months of the theft, all BFX token holders had their tokens redeemed for 100 cents on the dollar, or exchanged for shares of iFinex stock.
All BFX tokens were destroyed during this process. Bitfinex then created a tradable RRT token and distributed it to BFX holders who converted the BFX tokens into iFinex shares. Ownership of RRT tokens entitles the holder to receive refunds due to the recovery of stolen BTC.
Thus, RRT holders receive up to $1 per RRT token in the event of recovery of stolen funds.
Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino said:
“We remain committed to recovering the remaining bitcoin stolen in the 2016 hack and will proactively work with all relevant parties and law enforcement agencies. Those responsible should know that we will not rest until all the bitcoin lost in the hack is reclaimed”.
The post Bitfinex recovers 6.51458211 Bitcoin from the 2016 hack appeared first on The Cryptonomist.
