Convicted Bitfinex hacker Ilya Lichtenstein says he has been released from prison ahead of schedule after provisions of a federal criminal justice reform law reduced his sentence for laundering billions of dollars’ worth of stolen cryptocurrency.
Lichtenstein announced his release in a post on X on Monday, crediting the early exit to the First Step Act, a 2018 law signed during President Donald Trump’s first term that expanded good-time credits and adjusted sentencing rules for federal inmates.
“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.”
Lichtenstein pleaded guilty in August 2023 to conspiring to launder proceeds from the 2016 hack of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, one of the largest digital asset thefts on record. Prosecutors said he used sophisticated techniques to breach the exchange’s systems and move vast amounts of bitcoin into accounts he controlled.
In November 2024, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sentenced Lichtenstein to five years in prison, factoring in the time he had already spent in custody since his February 2022 arrest. Under that sentence, he was expected to serve just over two additional years followed by three years of supervised release.
Despite Lichtenstein’s announcement, the Federal Bureau of Prisons still lists his official release date as Feb. 9.
His wife, Heather Morgan, who also pleaded guilty in the case, shared a photo of the couple’s reunion on X, calling it a long-awaited moment.
“The best New Year’s present I could get was finally having my husband home after four years of being apart,” Morgan wrote.
Morgan, known online as “Razzlekhan,” received an 18-month sentence after admitting to helping launder the stolen cryptocurrency. Lichtenstein has said he carried out the hack alone and that Morgan was unaware of the breach for years before assisting with moving the funds. Like her husband, Morgan was also released earlier than expected under the First Step Act.
Attorneys for Lichtenstein and a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia did not respond to requests for comment.
The case is United States v. Ilya Lichtenstein et al., No. 1:23-cr-00239, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
