Man Behind $10 Billion Bitfinex Bitcoin Hack Released Early, Thanks Trump’s Crime Act

Ilya Lichtenstein, perpetrator of one of the biggest hacks in Bitcoin history, has been released from jail early. He thanked a prison reform act signed by President Donald Trump in 2018 for his freedom after moving to house arrest.

The First Step Act is a bipartisan criminal justice bill signed by President Donald Trump in December 2018. The act included several amendments to US federal law with the aim of reducing offending and decreasing the inmate population.

In a post on X, the hacker thanked President Trump’s First Step Act for his early release. He told his followers he was looking forward to making “a positive impact” on cybersecurity, and proving his “haters” wrong.

Lichtenstein, now 38, was convicted of conspiracy to commit money laundering in 2024, following a guilty plea. He laundered or attempted to launder roughly 120,000 Bitcoin belonging to the exchange, worth $10.56 billion at current prices. He has served 14 months of his original sentence of just under five years.

The Russian-American hacker, who worked in partnership with his wife Heather Morgan, stole the funds from the Hong Kong-based Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange in 2016. The hacker couple would later become the subject of a Netflix documentary, Biggest Heist Ever, and are set to serve as the inspiration for an upcoming movie, listed as in pre-production on IMDb.

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The US Department of Justice later recovered the majority, but not all, of the stolen Bitcoin, returning it to its original owners. In January 2025, federal prosecutors ordered that the remaining 25,000 Bitcoin taken in the 2016 hack must be returned.

Many within the cryptocurrency community were unimpressed by the news of Lichtenstein’s release. A blockchain analyst called cubedSpecter posted a meme on X saying “crime is legal” in response to news of his release.

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His wife, Heather Morgan, also known as rapper “Razzlekhan,” announced her early release back in October 2024, serving just eight months in jail out of an 18-month sentence for her role in laundering the proceeds from the record-breaking hack. A Trump administration official confirmed his release in an official statement to CNBC, saying that Lichtenstein “has served significant time on his sentence and is currently in home confinement consistent with statute and Bureau of Prisons policies.”

Trump has pardoned some big names in the crypto industry during his second term, such as former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao and Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the dark web marketplace Silk Road.