Bitfinex Hack

About Bitfinex Hack

Bitfinex, a major cryptocurrency exchange, was hacked in August 2016. Approximately 120,000 bitcoins worth 72 million were stolen. Rather than declaring bankruptcy, Bitfinex socialized the losses, reducing all customer balances by 36 percent and issuing BFX tokens representing the losses. Customers could trade BFX tokens or redeem them for equity in Bitfinex parent company iFinex. All BFX tokens were redeemed within 8 months. In 2022, the US Department of Justice announced the recovery of 94,000 of the stolen bitcoins, valued at 3.6 billion. Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan were arrested. In 2024, Bitfinex announced it would distribute recovered bitcoins to affected users. The case was one of the few crypto exchange hack recoveries.