The world of cryptocurrencies, especially in its early years, had a reputation as a playground for hackers and various malicious entities. And while that has changed tremendously in recent years and the field has received massive recognition and regulatory clarity, the ghosts of its past remain.
One of the most infamous Bitcoin hacks took place back in 2016 when someone stole roughly 120,000 BTC from one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges – Bitfinex. Now, given everything that has happened since Netflix wants to turn it into a documentary.
Let’s dive into it.
It’s 2016, Bitfinex gets hacked for 120,000 BTC
In August 2016, the cryptocurrency world, although much…much smaller at the time, experienced one of its major upheavals when news broke that Bitfinex had seen 119,756 BTC stolen from its platform. . At the time, the amount was worth around $66 million.
Although the Mt. Gox hack was proportionally bigger, this remains one of the most serious financial crimes in modern history, given the meteoric rise of BTC’s price to date. At the time of this writing, the 120K BTC is currently worth over $5 billion.
Either way, the theft caused massive confusion and frustration. The source of the vulnerability appears to be the way the exchange structured its accounts, using BTC wallet provider BitGo which added an extra layer of security for transactions.
Fast Forward to 2022: The US DoJ Arrests a Couple
Just a few days ago, on February 8th, CryptoPotato reported that the US authorities, in the face of the Department of Justice, arrested Ilya Lichtenstein (34) and Heather Morgan (31). The DoJ accused them of conspiring to launder 119,754 BTC after an attacker stole them through over 20,000 unauthorized transactions from Bitfinex in the above heist.
Now, a very important clarification here is that the pair are not accused of orchestrating the hack, but rather of attempting to launder the money stolen through it. This, among some downright ridiculous circumstances, has led many to believe that they are not responsible for the hack.
Speaking of bizarre events, a simple example would be that the authorities claim they found the private keys to the BTC fortune stored on a, get this, a cloud service. That’s right – the accused stored the private keys to 120K BTC on what may easily have been Google Cloud. To the uninitiated, keeping your private keys on an offline medium at all times is one of the (if not the) most important security principles that anyone stepping into the field of cryptocurrencies should follow. For some more security tips, take a look at our extensive guide.
All things considered, the drama surrounding the events seems to have caught the attention of the streaming giant – Netflix.
Netflix Wants to Turn it into a Documentary
A press release from February 11th reads that:
Netflix has ordered a documentary series about a married couple’s alleged scheme to launder billions of dollars worth of stolen cryptocurrency in the biggest criminal financial crime case in history.
To be fair, it’s definitely not the “greatest criminal financial crime case in history.” As we mentioned above, the Mt. Gox hack saw the BTC worth around six times that stolen.
In any case, the documentary is set to be directed and produced by Chris Smith and Nick Bilton.
