[Blockchain Today Correspondent Han Ji-hye] Two days after the U.S. Department of Justice confiscated about $3.6 billion worth of BTC in connection with the 2016 Bitfinex Bitcoin hack, dozens of people filed a Bitcoin property claim.
Citing a Bloomberg report on the 10th (local time), Cryptopotato, a media specialized in cryptocurrency, cited a Bloomberg report that the Ministry of Justice plans to initiate court proceedings for victims of hacking after the Bitfinex hacking case has been resolved. reported that
Reportedly, the biggest question now is who will own the recovered bitcoins. Attention is focused on whether it will be the part of Bitfinex or the victims.
“After the Justice Department announced that it had recovered $3.6 billion in BTC, dozens of people claiming to be victims of it,” David Silver, a lawyer who specializes in financial and cryptocurrency-related fraud, told Bloomberg. I have been contacted,” he said. “Everyone will claim ownership of this newly discovered Bitcoin because the world has changed dramatically since 2016,” he said.
Bitfinex also joined the ranks of claiming ownership of the recovered bitcoins.
According to Bitfinex, 119,000 BTC was stolen at the time of the hack, and the exchange solved the compensation problem by generalizing that over 30% of users lost money.
At that time, Bitfinex created a BFX coin and issued it to the customer, offering one BFX token for every dollar lost. Issued tokens could be exchanged for US dollars or company stock.
In addition, in the case of customers who have converted BFX coins into company stock, they created and distributed a ‘Recovery Right Token (RRT)’ that promises to be able to claim their rights when stolen bitcoins are recovered.
According to Bitfinex, there are currently about 30 million RRT tokens issued, and if one RRT is calculated as $1, Bitfinex will have to repay a total of $30 million to RRT owners.
Bitfinex announced in an official statement on the 8th that it will “work with the Ministry of Justice to establish the right to return stolen bitcoins in accordance with appropriate legal procedures.”
But Crypto Potato said some of the victims had a different opinion. This is because the value of Bitcoin, which was about $71 million at the time of the hack, is now over $4.5 billion. It is argued that it is unreasonable for Bitfinex to retain all rights to the recovered bitcoins, given the soaring value of bitcoins over the past six years.
One of the victims, Alan Aronoff, claimed that he currently owns about $50,000 worth of Bitfinex stock. .
Former US Attorney Kellen Dwyer said: “The resolution of this case will take a long time, and it will certainly be several years before someone gets paid.”
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