Ilya Lichtenstein was sentenced to five years in prison in November 2024 after pleading guilty to charges related to the 2016 Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange hack, and was released after just 14 months in prison.
“Thank you President [Donald] “I was released from prison early under Trump’s First Step Act. I remain committed to making a positive impact in the cybersecurity space as quickly as possible,” Lichtenstein told X on Thursday.
Trump signed the First Step Act, a prison and sentencing reform bill introduced and approved by lawmakers in 2018 that was purportedly intended to save taxpayers money.
Lichtenstein thanked his supporters and criticized his “haters,” writing, “I look forward to proving you wrong,” while reiterating that he “remains committed to making a positive impact in cybersecurity.”
While some congratulated Lichtenstein for getting the X, others were less forgiving. An on-chain investigator named Specter on
Lichtenstein and his wife, rapper Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan, were arrested in February 2022. Morgan was sentenced to 18 months in prison and was released in October after serving approximately eight months.
The Bitfinex hack in August 2016 resulted in the theft of 119,754 Bitcoins, worth approximately $71 million at the time, but more than $10 billion at current prices. Authorities recovered approximately 94,000 BTC, and in January 2025, U.S. prosecutors filed a motion to return the recovered BTC to Bitfinex.
Lichtenstein pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering charges and admitted hacking crypto assets. He also claimed that his wife had nothing to do with the crime. According to TRM’s report, he successfully exchanged approximately 25,000 Bitcoins for other cryptocurrencies and physical gold coins, most of which was recovered by the U.S. government.
Lichtenstein’s release comes as President Trump has drawn criticism for his use of executive clemency in cryptocurrency-related cases, but Lichtenstein himself has not been pardoned. Between January and October, Trump pardoned Silk Road founders Ross Ulbricht, Arthur Hayes and three other BitMex exchange co-founders who were convicted of violating bank secrecy laws, as well as Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ), who admitted to money laundering at the world’s largest exchange.