Ilya Lichtenstein, convicted for laundering proceeds from the 2016 hack of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, says he has been released from prison early under the U.S. First Step Act.
In a post on X last week, the 38-year-old announced his release and credited the criminal justice reform law signed during Donald Trump’s presidency.
“I remain committed to making a positive impact in cybersecurity as soon as I can,” Lichtenstein wrote. “To the supporters, thank you for everything. To the haters, I look forward to proving you wrong.”
Despite his announcement, the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ inmate locator lists Lichtenstein’s official release date as February 9, 2026.
The First Step Act, enacted in 2018, is a bipartisan measure designed to reduce recidivism and shrink the federal prison population. It introduced a risk and needs assessment system that can make some incarcerated people eligible for early release, including through home confinement.
Lichtenstein and his wife, Heather Rhiannon “Razzlekhan” Morgan, pleaded guilty in 2023 to charges tied to the Bitfinex hack, after their arrest in February 2022. The 2016 breach allowed Lichtenstein to fraudulently authorize more than 2,000 transactions, moving 119,754 bitcoin—then worth about $71 million—from Bitfinex to a wallet he controlled.
Authorities later recovered roughly 94,000 bitcoin, valued at around $3.6 billion in 2022, in what became one of the largest financial seizures in U.S. history. In January 2025, federal prosecutors asked a court to return the recovered funds to Bitfinex.
Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs said Lichtenstein exploited a weakness in Bitfinex’s multi-signature withdrawal setup. The flaw allegedly let him initiate and approve withdrawals without authorization from BitGo, a third-party digital asset custodian.
Investigators said the stolen bitcoin was laundered through conversions into other cryptocurrencies and routed via mixing services such as Bitcoin Fog. The scheme began to unravel when some of the funds were used to buy Walmart gift cards on a virtual currency exchange. Those cards were redeemed in Walmart’s iPhone app under an account linked to Morgan, helping authorities trace the activity.
Lichtenstein was sentenced in November 2024 to five years in prison. Morgan received an 18-month sentence and later said on X in October 2025 that she had been released “like a month ago,” adding that “prison was chill enough.”
A Trump administration official told CNBC that Lichtenstein “served significant time on his sentence and is currently on home confinement consistent with statute and Bureau of Prisons policies.” Morgan also marked his return in a post on X, writing, “The best New Years present I could get was finally having my husband home after 4 years of being apart.”