Ilya Lichtenstein has announced his early release from prison via a social media post, after being sentenced last year for his involvement in the 2016 hack of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex. He expressed gratitude towards the First Step Act, a bipartisan initiative passed in 2018 aimed at reforming the criminal justice system and reducing the federal prison population.
Lichtenstein, alongside his wife Heather Morgan, was convicted for their roles in the theft of 119,754 bitcoin, valued at approximately $71 million at the time of the hack. This incident involved unauthorized transactions facilitated by exploiting vulnerabilities in Bitfinex's security protocols. The couple's actions led to one of the largest seizures of cryptocurrency in U.S. history, with law enforcement recovering around 94,000 bitcoin, valued at about $3.6 billion in 2022.