A US federal court has ordered that more than 94,000 Bitcoin seized in connection with the 2016 hack of Bitfinex be returned to the exchange, marking a major restitution decision for the crypto industry.
The ruling covers 94,643 BTC along with smaller amounts of forked assets including Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV and Bitcoin Gold recovered by US authorities.
The assets were seized from wallets controlled by Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, who were charged in connection with laundering funds stolen during the 2016 breach.
Prosecutors argued under the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act that Bitfinex customers no longer qualified as victims because the exchange had already compensated users following the hack.
At the time, Bitfinex imposed a 36% haircut on user balances and issued BFX recovery tokens that could be redeemed for cash or converted into equity in its parent company.
Bitfinex has said it plans to use about 80% of the returned Bitcoin to buy back and burn recovery and UNUS SED LEO tokens over roughly 18 months.
Legal observers say the decision may set a precedent for how US courts recognise property rights in digital assets, particularly in cases where stolen cryptocurrency is recovered years after the original crime.
At the time of reporting, Bitcoin price was $70,081.22.