Bitfinex crypto thief who was serving five years thanks Trump for early release

Ilya Lichtenstein, who pleaded guilty to money-laundering charges tied to the 2016 theft of about 120,000 bitcoins from the Bitfinex exchange and was sentenced to five years in prison, has been released after roughly 14 months in the slammer.

"Thanks to President Trump's First Step Act, I have been released from prison early," Lichtenstein said in a late Thursday post on X.

"I remain committed to making a positive impact in cybersecurity as soon as I can," he continued. "To the supporters, thank you for everything. To the haters, I look forward to proving you wrong."

Trump signed the prison-reform First Step Act into law during his first term in 2018. A White House official confirmed Lichtenstein's early release to The Register, noting that he served "significant time on his sentence" and has been placed on home confinement, "consistent with statute and Bureau of Prisons policies."

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