Bitfinex Hacker Behind $11 Billion Bitcoin Heist Credits Trump for Early Prison Release

Ilya Lichtenstein, who orchestrated the theft of over $11 billion worth of Bitcoin from crypto exchange Bitfinex in 2016, is out of prison years ahead of schedule—and credits President Donald Trump with the early release.

Months prior, Lichtenstein’s wife and convicted co-conspirator, Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan, was also released early from prison. Morgan similarly thanked Trump for her early release. 

A Trump administration official confirmed to Decrypt on Monday that Lichtenstein is in fact out of prison.

“This individual has served significant time on his sentence and is currently on home confinement consistent with statute and Bureau of Prisons policies,” the official said.

The official did not respond to further inquiries regarding whether the White House played any role in securing Lichtenstein’s early release.

The convicted money launderer was sentenced in November 2024 to five years in prison for stealing over 119,000 BTC from Bitfinex. Lichtenstein managed to obtain the funds by exploiting a vulnerability in the crypto exchange’s security infrastructure, with his wife convicted for helping to launder the stolen funds.

The stolen Bitcoin, valued at $71 million at the time, is now worth some $11.2 billion. The funds were eventually recovered by the U.S. government.

Upon his release on New Year’s Day, Lichtenstein credited “President Trump’s First Step Act” with his early release from federal prison.

“To the supporters, thank you for everything,” Lichtenstein said. “To the haters, I look forward to proving you wrong.”

In 2018, President Trump signed the First Step Act, a bipartisan prison reform bill that, among other things, offered new pathways for certain inmates to be “pre-released” into home confinement. Certain elderly and terminally ill inmates are permitted to serve the remainder of their sentences at home, and inmates can also earn up to 54 days a year of “good time credit” that can accumulate towards early pre-release.

It is not clear whether Lichtenstein qualified as elderly or terminally ill, or had accumulated sufficient good time credit to be pre-released barely a year after receiving his sentence. The Bureau of Prisons did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment on the matter.

Upon her own release from prison in October, Lichtenstein’s wife, the rapper Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan, thanked President Trump for the early exit—but made no mention of the First Step Act.

“I want to give a shoutout to Papa Trump for making my 18-month sentence shorter,” Morgan said from her bathtub. “So razzle-fucking-dazzle.”

At the time, a White House official told Decrypt that Morgan’s early release was “not due to a commutation from the president.”