The U.S. Department of Justice has seized $4 billion U.S. in stolen Bitcoin (BTC), which is the largest ever confiscation of cryptocurrency.
Justice Department officials have charged two people with attempting to launder the money that was stolen by a hacker who breached a cryptocurrency platform back in 2016.
The hacker reportedly made off with nearly 120,000 Bitcoin that was then valued at $71 million U.S. but is now worth more than $5 billion U.S.
About 94,000 of the 120,000 stolen Bitcoin have been recovered by the U.S. Justice Department. The cryptocurrency was stolen in a 2016 hack of a cryptocurrency exchange known as “Bitfinex.”
According to Justice Department officials, the hacker breached the platform, made more than 2,000 unauthorised transactions, and then funnelled the money into a digital wallet.
In a statement, Bitfinex said it had cooperated with the inquiry and was pleased that the stolen Bitcoin had been recovered.
The cryptocurrency seizure comes four months after the launch of a National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team at the U.S. Justice Department.
