The US Department of Justice seized $3.6 billion in cryptocurrency and arrested two suspects linked to the 2016 hack. According to the DoJ, alleged hackers Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan were apprehended after federal authorities used their ability to “follow the money through the blockchain.”
There were several questions about this event in the mind of the crypto community. Some of the questions were as follows:
- Why did the DOJ not prosecute hacking? Is the hacker someone else?
- Can Bitfinex recover its Bitcoin? how much time is required?
- Bitfinex said that it may directly use Bitcoin to buy back LEO, will it cause market volatility?
- Did Bitfinex lose or make money from the hack?
- If they get the BTC back, how should they split that with LEO holders or the people who took a loss to accept LEO at the time of the hack, and then sold LEO?
The crypto community got some of the answers from Paolo Ardoino, Bitfinex CTO. He started with powerful crypto trading platform Bitfinex in 2014 as a senior software developer, and after two years, he was promoted to chief technology officer (CTO). He also serves as chief technology officer of Tether.
According to our sources, his answer to the first question was, “We don’t have that information yet. The general belief is they are the money launderers, but not necessarily the hackers. It will be part of the process to confirm all the facts and potentially discover other participants.”
For the second question, he answered that “we’ve been identified as the victim, and we’re continuing to collaborate with the DOJ to enter in possession of the BTC stolen from bitfinex. However, we don’t have a precise timeline yet.” And finally, for the third question, his answer was that “Among biggest LEO holders there are bitcoin whales and supporters. We’re confident that they would accept BTC in exchange for LEO and keep them.”
For the rest, two questions Crypto Banter host Ran Neuner answered. First, according to Neuner’s tweet, the hack may be the best trade ever made. Second, Jack Niewold, the founder of Crypto Pragmatist, believes this has enormous implications for BTC and LEO. He wrote, “With selling methods like TWAP as well as OTC deals, it’s likely that it doesn’t affect the $BTC market too much, but $4 billion is a decent chunk.”
Cryptocurrency figures on social media still share their thoughts, raise questions, and express shock. But unfortunately, there are several questions in the mind of the people, and no one has answers to their questions.
