In this article, Richard Lewis and James Wise discuss the main lessons that those involved in cryptoasset tracing and litigation can take from the recent announcement that the US Department of Justice has seized US$3.6 billion worth of Bitcoin from the proceeds of the hack of the Hong Kong-based crypto exchange Bitfinex in 2016.

The hack of the crypto exchange Bitfinex has been described as the “heist of the century”; in total over 120,000 Bitcoin (US$4.5 billion at current prices) was stolen in a series of unauthorised transfers from Bitfinex users' wallets in August 2016. 

Last week, the US Department of Justice made an apparent breakthrough in prosecuting this heist: over US$3.6 billion worth of the proceeds of the Bitfinex hack is claimed to have been traced to a New York-based couple, Heather Morgan and Ilya "Dutch" Lichtenstein, and was seized by the DoJ.  Both Morgan and Lichtenstein have been arrested and charged with money laundering crimes; neither has yet entered a plea. They are not alleged to have been the perpetrators of the Bitfinex hack.

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