The US government this week transferred approximately 8 BTC associated with the 2016 Bitfinex hack to Coinbase Prime. These coins, currently worth around $606,000, originated from the wallets of Ilya Lichtenstein, the mastermind of the hack, according to Arkham, which tracks on-chain data.
A transfer to an exchange is often interpreted as a sell signal. But not always. Routine custody changes or wallet management leave the same trace; the meaning changes depending on the context.
These coins have a place
Lichtenstein stole 119,756 BTC from Bitfinex in 2016. After years of legal proceedings, in 2025 a federal court ruled that these assets should be returned to Bitfinex in kind, rather than liquidated. So the money will not go into the Treasury. Bitfinex plans to use the recovered funds for two purposes: first, to fully recover the Recovery Right Tokens distributed to the hack victims, and then to spend at least eighty percent of the remaining net proceeds to withdraw and burn UNUS SED LEO tokens from the market.
The story from eight years ago
In August 2016, Lichtenstein infiltrated Bitfinex systems and took control of 119,756 BTC through more than two thousand fraudulent transactions. At the time, this amount was approximately $72 million. Today's equivalent is $8.9 billion.
This was followed by a complex years-long cleanup operation: crypto mixers, dark web exchanges, cross-chain transfers, and gold purchases. In 2022, investigators caught him; at that time, BTC worth $3.6 billion was seized. In 2024, Lichtenstein was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison. Released in January 2026 under the First Step Act, and X shared a post thanking President Trump.
Coins in the reserve
The stolen coins are still in government possession before being released. And this is where the picture gets interesting.
In March 2025, Trump announced the establishment of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve with an executive order. According to the White House statement, the reserve is based not on new purchases, but on coins seized through lawsuits. White House official David Sacks emphasized that the reserve would not impose an additional cost on taxpayers.
The crypto assets currently held by the US government consist of approximately $24.54 billion worth of BTC, $146 million worth of ETH, and various other tokens. The majority of this portfolio also consists of assets seized from proceeds of crime.
The reserve's influence did not remain confined to the US borders. Pakistan, in May 2025, announced it was inspired by the US when it established its own strategic BTC reserve. Arizona and New Hampshire, meanwhile, have laid the groundwork for state-level crypto reserves.
