Ilya Lichtenstein, sentenced to five years in prison in November 2024 after pleading guilty to charges related to the 2016 Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange hack, was released after only 14 months.
“Thanks to President [Donald] Trump’s First Step Act, I have been released early,” Lichtenstein tweeted on X on Thursday. “I am committed to positively impacting cybersecurity as soon as possible.”
Trump signed the First Step Act, a reform bill for prison and sentencing introduced and approved in 2018, ostensibly to save taxpayer money.
Lichtenstein expressed gratitude to his supporters and criticized his “haters,” stating, “I look forward to proving you wrong,” while reasserting his commitment to making a positive impact in cybersecurity.
While some congratulated Lichtenstein on X, others were critical. An onchain investigator known as Specter shared a meme claiming “crime is legal,” and CB32 inquired “how much did you pay?” Additionally, Cryptoenthusiast asked, “Where’s the 120,000 stolen from Bitfinex?”
Lichtenstein and his wife, rapper Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan, were arrested in February 2022. Morgan received an 18-month sentence and was released in October after serving around eight months.
The Bitfinex hack in August 2016 resulted in the theft of 119,754 BTC, valued at approximately $71 million then, but now worth over $10 billion. Authorities have recovered about 94,000 BTC, and in January 2025, U.S. prosecutors filed a motion to return the recovered BTC to Bitfinex.
Lichtenstein pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy and acknowledged the hack of crypto assets. He also claimed that his wife was uninvolved in the crime. He managed to convert approximately 25,000 BTC into other cryptocurrencies and physical gold coins, most of which the U.S. government recovered, as reported by a TRM report.
Lichtenstein’s release coincides with President Trump’s controversial use of executive clemency in crypto-related cases, although Lichtenstein himself was not pardoned. Between January and October, Trump pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, Arthur Hayes, and three other BitMex exchange cofounders convicted of Bank Secrecy Act violations, as well as Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who had pleaded guilty to enabling money laundering at the largest exchange.
