The original Bitfinex hacker has finally been identified.
Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein, a resident of New York, has admitted to being the original Bitfinex hacker. The coins were worth $71 million at the time and the value eventually grew to $4.5 billion.
Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan were charged in 2022 with laundering money connected to the theft but it wasn’t clear who was behind the heist, which led to a 20% drop in the price of bitcoin.
Lichtenstein has been held without bond since his arrest and the pair haven’t seen each other since. CNBC report that Lichtenstein smiled at his wife and blew her a kiss during their moment of eye contact, the first time they had seen each other in more than a year.
The pair has pleaded guilty to money laundering and you have to imagine that the hacking admission will add a considerable penalty for Lichtenstein and Morgan.
A Netflix series is underway on the couple as Morgan had achieved some level of infamy before the arrest with her ‘crocodile of wall street’ persona.