It appears that the United States government is going to compensate Bitfinex, which lost nearly 120,000 Bitcoin (BTC) in a 2016 hack. In a report, the government claims that Bitfinex is the sole entity eligible for this significant compensation, as they have already reimbursed their customers through BFX tokens.
Bitfinex Set To Get 120,000 BTC
In 2016, Bitfinex was hacked, resulting in the loss of nearly 120,000 BTC. Following this, the firm reduced customers’ funds by 36% to cover losses. However, later in 2017, Bitfinex compensated their customers by issuing special tokens named “BFX”, while some customers were also compensated with shares from Bitfinex’s parent company, iFinex.
After examining all the details, the US government comes to a point where they have found that Bitfinex is the primary victim of those 120,000 stolen BTC, not the customer, as they have already been compensated with BFX tokens and iFinex shares. The report added,
“The government is not aware of any person who qualifies as a victim under the CVRA or for restitution under the MVRA, beyond perhaps Bitfinex, the Victim Virtual Currency Exchange (‘VICTIM VCE’).”
However, in 2022, the US legal authority seized nearly 95,000 BTC related to the hack that Bitfinex experienced in 2016, which is now worth over $5.8 billion. Since then Bitfinex has been in contact with and working alongside the authority to recover those BTC.
Bitfinex’s BTC Compensation, Impact of LEO Token
Following this update from the US government, Bitfinex’s LEO token skyrocketed but now it appears to be cool-off. According to the coinmarketcap data, when the US government shared the report, the price of LEO tokens soared by 14%, rising from $5.84 to $6.88 in just two hours. However, it later gave up all of those gains.
At press time, LEO is trading near $6.10 and has experienced nearly a 2% price jump over the past 24 hours. During the same period, investor and trader interest skyrocketed as its trading volume jumped by nearly 500%, indicating notable participation from traders and investors.