Programmer Ilya Lichtenstein, 35, has been sentenced to five years in prison for his role in laundering Bitcoin stolen from the Bitfinex exchange. 🏦

The US Justice Department announced the sentence, marking a major development in the case involving the theft of nearly 120,000 BTC, worth $71.8 million in 2016 but worth more than $4.5 billion when he was arrested in 2022.

Lichtenstein hacked into the Bitfinex network, transferring 119,754 BTC to his personal wallet in more than 2,000 unauthorized transactions. He and his wife, Heather Morgan, used a variety of techniques to conceal the origin of the funds, including “chain hopping” and the use of cryptocurrency mixing services. 💻

After his arrest, about $3.6 billion was recovered and returned to the exchange.