Wallets containing bitcoin seized by the U.S. government in the notorious Bitfinex hack – later leading to guilty pleas for Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather "Razzlekhan" Morgan – have suddenly become active.
Nearly $1 billion has been transferred from wallets tagged in the case to unidentified addresses, in a series of four transactions in less than two hours' time.
The motive or purpose of the transactions isn't clear; the U.S. government didn't immediately reply to CoinDesk's request for comment.

Two crypto wallets tagged as holding funds seized by the U.S. government related to the infamous Bitfinex hack have just transferred nearly $1 billion of bitcoin to unidentified addresses.

A wallet that's one of at least three tagged by the blockchain-data firm Arkham Intelligence as holding seized Bitfinex hacker funds, on behalf of the government, initially transferred 1 BTC around 18:39 UTC (1:39 pm ET). Roughly a half-hour later, the remaining 2,817 BTC in the wallet were sent, leaving the wallet empty. Together they represented about $173 million worth of bitcoin.

Screenshot showing one of the U.S. government wallets holding seized Bitfinex hacker funds transferring out the entire bitcoin balance in two transactions. (Arkham Intelligence)

Shortly afterward, another wallet, containing about 12,300 BTC, transferred 0.01 BTC to a different unidentified address, according to Arkham, and shortly afterward the remaining BTC were sent. Those transfers represented about $750 million worth, bring the total value of the bitcoin transferred from the two wallets to about $923 million, based on the current price of the leading cryptocurrency.

The motive for the transfers wasn't clear, and the Justice Department declined to comment on the purpose, but an official confirmed that they were conducted as part of legitimate law enforcement-related activities.

The bitcoin moved during a volatile day of trading in the cryptocurrency, with its price hitting $60,000 for the first time since November 2021, then climbing further above $64,000 before abruptly plunging to just above $59,000. As of press time it was changing hands just above $60,000. The all-time high price, set in late 2021, was around $69,000.

According to Arkham, there is another U.S. government wallet containing about 94,600 BTC of seized Bitfinex hacker funds, worth roughly $5.79 billion at the current price.

The Bitfinex hack was one of the crypto industry's most notorious heists, partly due to the colorful social-media posts of Heather "Razzlekhan" Morgan, who was charged in the case along with Ilya Lichtenstein.

According to a Justice Department press release in August, the government seized about 95,000 stolen bitcoin from crypto wallets in the defendants' control, valued about $3.6 billion at the time of the seizure.

UPDATE (15:50 UTC): Adds that Justice Department confirms the transactions were conducted for legitimate law enforcement purposes.

Bitfinex Bitcoin U.S. Government Justice department Hack Analysis On-Chain Analysis Arkham intelligence

Bradley Keoun

Bradley Keoun is CoinDesk's managing editor of tech & protocols, where he oversees a team of reporters covering blockchain technology, and previously ran the global crypto markets team. A two-time Loeb Awards finalist, he previously was chief global finance and economic correspondent for TheStreet and before that worked as an editor and reporter for Bloomberg News in New York and Mexico City, reporting on Wall Street, emerging markets and the energy industry. He started out as a police-beat reporter for the Gainesville Sun in Florida and later worked as a general-assignment reporter for the Chicago Tribune. Originally from Fort Wayne, Indiana, he double-majored in electrical engineering and classical studies as an undergraduate at Duke University and later obtained a master's in journalism from the University of Florida. He is currently based in Austin, Texas, and in his spare time plays guitar, sings in a choir and hikes in the Texas Hill Country. He owns less than $1,000 each of several cryptocurrencies.