“Bitfinex doesn’t owe me anything,they made me whole years ago,” said Erik Voorhees,an early crypto advocate who runs the ShapeShift cryptocurrency exchange.
Many customers disagree,particularly given Bitcoin’s appreciation from less than $US600 in August 2016 to around $US44,700. The tokens were worth about $US71 million at the time of the hack,with the total amount now valued at about $US4.5 billion.
“I think that’s ridiculous,” Alan Aronoff,a 52-year-old San Francisco resident,said in an interview. “That’s my Bitcoin that they took from my multisig wallet. I would like my Bitcoin back.” Aronoff doesn’t remember whether he signed away any rights to his stolen Bitcoin while accepting the Bitfinex reimbursement.
“They can have their equity back,” said Aronoff,who claims to own about $US50,000 of “illiquid” Bitfinex stock. “I’ll take my Bitcoin,thank you very much.”
Much will depend on what the user agreement Bitfinex had people sign in 2016 said,said Kyle Roche,of Roche Freedman LLP,which is involved in litigation against Bitfinex. He’s already fielded inquiries from about 10 people about how to claim funds.
Another difficulty may lie even in verifying customer identities. Even today,anyone with an email address can simply open an account on Bitfinex,without any further verification for most basic functions.
“I don’t believe DoJ will turn $US3.6 billion to an organisation that can’t identify who this Bitcoin belongs to,” Silver said. iFinex had previously settled with the New York Attorney General over false claims related to its Tether product,the world’s most popular stablecoin.
“It certainly could be multiple years before anybody sees any cash.”
Kellen Dwyer,former assistant US Attorney who is now an Alston&Bird partner and co-leader of the firm’s national security and digital crimes team.
Many observers point out that creditors of defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox are still waiting to receive reimbursements under a plan that became final and binding in November. Mt. Gox closed in early 2014 after losing the coins of thousands of customers.
Who hacked the Bitfinex is still unclear as well,and could be pertinent to any distribution,Silver said.The married couple who were arrested on February 8 were accused of money laundering,not stealing the coins.
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Assuming the couple enters a guilty plea,the criminal process could take a year to play out,said Kellen Dwyer,former assistant US Attorney who is now an Alston&Bird partner and co-leader of the firm’s national security and digital crimes team. The determination of who is entitled to restitution and how much could take years,he said.
“That process could take the heck of a long time,” Dwyer said. “It certainly could be multiple years before anybody sees any cash.”
Bloomberg