Bitcoin worth $2.5 billion moved by 2016 Bitfinex hackers: Almost all funds now transferred

Quick Take

  • Bitfinex hackers of 2016 moved bitcoins worth nearly $2.5 billion on Tuesday. 
  • With today’s transactions, 99.9% of the stolen funds have now been moved, a Bitfinex spokesperson told The Block.

Bitfinex hackers who stole funds from the crypto exchange in 2016 moved a total of 64,643 bitcoins (worth nearly $2.5 billion at current prices) to unknown wallets on Tuesday.

The movements were tracked by Whale Alert and the funds were sent across 21 different transactions. These transactions included various amounts of bitcoins, from less than one bitcoin to 10,000 bitcoins per transaction.

Six transactions of the 21 total transactions moved a total of 60,000 bitcoin, with each transaction carrying 10,000 bitcoin. All the 64,643 bitcoins have been transferred to unknown wallets.

Bitfinex lost 119,756 bitcoins in 2016 (worth $66 million at the time and nearly $5 billion at current prices). With today's 21 transactions, 99.9% of the stolen funds have now been moved, a Bitfinex spokesperson told The Block.

Fourteen bitcoins of the lost 119,756 bitcoins have yet to be moved, the spokesperson added.

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Bitfinex has been trying to recover the stolen funds. To date, it has recovered about 50 bitcoins (worth nearly $2 million at current prices), said the spokesperson.

The exchange "continues to work globally with law enforcement agencies, digital token exchanges and wallet providers to recover the bitcoin stolen in the 2016 hack," the spokesperson added.

The Bitfinex hack has been one of the largest in crypto's history. It forced the exchange to issue "Recovery Rights Tokens" as an IOU (I owe you) to customers. An IOU is usually an informal document acknowledging debt.

The Recovery Rights Tokens were traded as BFX tokens. In 2017, Bitfinex said it redeemed 100% of BFX tokens, allowing users to cash them out for their full value of $1 per token. All BFX tokens were then destroyed and trading of the tokens was stopped.


© 2023 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

About Author

Yogita Khatri is a senior reporter at The Block, covering all things crypto. As one of the earliest team members, Yogita has played a pivotal role in breaking numerous stories, exclusives and scoops. With nearly 3,000 articles under her belt, Yogita holds the records as The Block's most-published and most-read author of all time. Prior to joining The Block, Yogita worked at crypto publication CoinDesk and The Economic Times, where she wrote on personal finance. To contact her, email: [email protected]. For her latest work, follow her on X @Yogita_Khatri5.