Figure: Figure worm
Source: 21tech
Author: Hu Tianjiao
Editor: Ma Chunyuan
On February 8, local time, the U.S. Department of Justice said it had seized more than $3.6 billion of bitcoin (at the price at the time of seizure) stolen between the 2016 hacking of the virtual currency exchange Bitfinex, while arresting two people suspected of dealing with the stolen cryptocurrency.
The seizure was the largest amount recovered in the history of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Digital currency exchange Bitfinex was hacked in 2016 and lost about $70 million in bitcoin at the price at the time.
"Today's arrests, as well as the largest financial seizure in the department's history, show that cryptocurrencies are not a safe haven for criminals." Lisa O. Monaco, deputy attorney general for the law enforcement agency, said that in order to maintain anonymity, the defendants laundered stolen funds through intricate cryptocurrency transactions, but this was a futile effort.
Kenneth A. Polite Jr., assistant attorney general of the Department of Justice's Criminal Division, emphasized that this action by federal law enforcement once again demonstrates that it can track funds through blockchain, while not allowing cryptocurrencies to become a safe harbor for money laundering or an outlaw area in the U.S. financial system, "We will take a firm stance against those who allegedly try to commit crimes using virtual currencies." ”
After a hacker hacked into Bitfinex's system in 2016 and initiated more than 2,000 unauthorized transactions, suspect Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan allegedly plotted to launder 119754 bitcoins stolen from the exchange's platform (at a price of about $4.5 billion), according to court documents disclosed by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The above-mentioned more than 2,000 unauthorized transactions will be sent to a digital wallet under pride Liechtenstein by the stolen bitcoins, and sophisticated means are used to try to disguise their origins. Over the past five years, about 25,000 stolen bitcoins have been removed through a complex money laundering process. The remaining stolen funds, including more than 94,000 bitcoins, are still in the wallet used to receive and store the illegal proceeds of the hacked attack. The U.S. Department of Justice recovered the remaining bitcoins after a court-authorized search of the accounts.
The Manhattan court determined that Ilya Lichtenstein was bailed at $5 million and Heather Morgan was on $3 million. The court demanded that the parents' house be used as security and prohibited the two from trading cryptocurrencies. The two are not currently accused of hacking Bitfinex, and the Justice Department's investigation is ongoing.
Justice Department officials said there are current plans to establish court proceedings for victims of the Bitfinex hacking incident at the time to recover the remaining stolen bitcoins. After the hack in 2016, Bitfinex created BFX tokens and paid out for every $1 lost in compensation for 1 BFX.
The cryptocurrency industry was still in its infancy in 2016, and the successful recovery of stolen cryptocurrencies at that time could change investors' assessment of risk in the cryptocurrency space.
The case was solved in 2016 at a time when the price of Bitcoin was back up.
After falling below the key price of $40,000/coin in January, Bitcoin recovered last week, gaining as much as 3.13% in February 8 to $44,145/coin, continuing Friday's biggest gain since October 2021, while breaching the 50-day moving average ($42,810) for the first time since November last year. Analysts believe that the next price target will be located at $46,000 to $47,000.
JPMorgan chase and chase strategists said that based on Bitcoin's volatility compared to gold, Bitcoin's "fair value" is about 12% lower than the current price.
"Given that the price of Bitcoin is about four times more volatile than gold, we estimate that the fair value level of the former is about $38,000." JPMorgan strategists expect bitcoin volatility spreads to narrow to 3 times, its fair value will rise to $50,000. The biggest challenge for Bitcoin in the future will be its volatility and cycles of booms and busts, both of which hinder institutional investors' further acceptance of Bitcoin.
For Bitcoin's price correction in January, JPMorgan chase and chase strategists believe it is different from the situation in Which Bitcoin fell by 50% in May 2021. But they noted that indicators such as open futures now show a "longer-term, and therefore more worrying, trend toward reduced positions" that began in November.
Currently, JPMorgan Chase's long-term theoretical target for Bitcoin is $150,000 per coin, up from $146,000 per coin in 2021.
According to cryptoCompare's latest monthly report released on February 4, local time, in January 2022, the volume of cryptocurrency derivatives and spot transactions fell by 14.6%, which means that an average of about $61 million of funds flowed out of the cryptocurrency field every week, the fastest monthly divestment since the end of 2020.
On February 8, KPMG (Canada) said that as part of its commitment to emerging technologies and asset classes, it plans to add Bitcoin and Ethereum to the company's balance sheet, but did not disclose exactly how much cryptocurrency it has purchased.
Editor: Lu Taoran