Bitfinex Bitcoin recovery prompts users to claim their share

Many institutions and individual users are attempting to claim a portion of the recovered Bitfinex funds, after the announcement that US authorities have recovered $3.6bn from the hack in 2016.

Out of the $4.5bn stolen, the overall amount seized and returned equates to 80%.

Recently, the Department of Justice (DoJ) seized 120,000 BTC off tech entrepreneurs Heather Morgan, 31, and her husband IIya Lichtenstein, 34. The two were arrested in Manhattan for the theft of the Bitcoin (BTC), however were not charged for the overall hack itself.

The married couple attacked the system by using a particular set of transactions sent to multiple crypto wallets. However, both now face charges for money laundering.

There has been major concern amid crypto users on Twitter, worried that the US government would sell the billions of BTC and crash the crypto markets.

However, the rightful BTC owners are Bitfinex, and it’s now the job of the company to distribute the funds to whoever lost out in the 2016 hack.

Many have been trying their luck in claiming a bit of the BTC action. ​​A Bloomberg report stated that lawyers specialising in crypto fraud have received several calls claiming to own large amounts of the returns funds.

“The world has changed dramatically since 2016, and everyone is going to lay claim to this newfound bag of Bitcoins”, said lawyer David Silver.

DoJ officials announced that a court process will take place to enable victims of the stolen crypto assets to reclaim what is theirs.

Additionally, since the value of BTC was trading at around $600 at the time of the Bitfinex hack, it has since catapulted at rates of 7,200%. So, there could be several new (and happy) crypto millionaires on the horizon.

Bitfinex allocated losses to more than 30% to all user accounts. The company then created a new token, BFX, which was issued to its customers in the ratio of one token equalling $1.

According to a report, users who redeemed such tokens then exchanged them for iFenex capital stock.

This wasn’t the only token created by Bitfinex, who curated the Recovery Right Token (RRT) used solely for reimbursements on the off chance the stolen assets would ever be returned.

Currently, with 30 million RTT tokens, the reimbursement amount stands at $30m. With such a large sum due for distribution, it could take a few years before any customers get a chance to see any of it.

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Written by Isabella Aslam

Reporter

Isabella is an experienced writer in B2B and B2C journalism. Alongside crypto, Isabella writes and discusses the topics of relationships and psychology. Isabella holds a first-class degree in music journalism and often interviews electronic artists and DJs.

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