Authorities recover $3.6 billion of stolen bitcoin from Bitfinex hack.

• On Tuesday morning, the Justice Department declared that it had confiscated over $3.6 billion in illicit bitcoin connected to the 2016 Bitfinex hack.
• Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife, Heather Morgan, 31, were arrested by officials and will make their initial appearances in federal court later in the day.

On Tuesday morning, the Justice Department announced that it had seized over $3.6 billion in cryptocurrency that was allegedly stolen during the 2016 hack of Bitfinex. As part of the operation, a New York couple was detained on charges of planning to launder the digital assets.

The largest financial seizure in the agency's history was announced by Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco in a statement.

Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife, Heather Morgan, 31, were arrested by officials. The couple will make their initial appearances in federal court later in the day. Their legal representation is not yet known.

Lichtenstein's digital wallet received the stolen bitcoin from more than 2,000 unauthorized transactions initiated by a hacker who breached Bitfinex's systems, according to prosecutors.

Officials seized over 94,000 bitcoin, worth about $3.6 billion at the time of seizure. The total value of the stolen bitcoin is now estimated to be approximately $4.5 billion, according to the agency.

Federal law enforcement has shown again that they can trace money through blockchain, and they will not tolerate cryptocurrency being used for money laundering or creating a lawless zone within our financial system, said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite Jr. in a statement.

The defendants are accused of conspiring to launder money and defraud the US, with a maximum sentence of 20 years and 5 years respectively.

In recent months, crypto platforms have been hit with numerous hacks and scams. In 2021, scammers made off with a record $14 billion in cryptocurrency, according to data from Chainalysis. Most recently, Wormhole, a popular bridge connecting the ethereum and solana blockchains, lost approximately $320 million in an apparent hack earlier this month.