https://techmonitor.ai/technology/cybersecurity/bitfinex-cryptocurrency-seizure-bitcoin-cybercrime

More than $3.6bn worth of Bitcoin stolen during a hack on the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange has been seized by the US Department of Justice in what has been described as the largest ever confiscation of its kind. Though this is a victory for the DoJ and its newly formed cryptocurrency enforcement team, tracking stolen cryptocurrencies remains fiendishly difficult and expensive. Experts say this case represents the US government going after quick wins rather than making significant progress to track those at the heart of illegal cryptocurrency trading.

Two people, Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife Heather Morgan, 31, were arrested by the DoJ on Tuesday morning for an “alleged conspiracy to launder cryptocurrency”. The DoJ says the couple were conspiring to move 119,754 Bitcoin, worth more than $4bn at the time of writing. The cryptocurrency had been stolen during a hack of the Hong Kong-based crypto-trading platform Bitfinex in 2016, and so far $3.6bn of it has been reclaimed by agents.