US Returns 264 Bitcoin to Bitfinex via Coinbase Transfer
The US government has moved another portion of its seized Bitcoin holdings, but this time it's not for sale. On October 6, 2026, approximately 264.863 BTC, valued at around $22.87 million, was transferred from a government wallet linked to the 2016 Bitfinex hack to Coinbase. This transfer appears to be part of a restitution process rather than a market sale.
In April 2026, the US government had already moved a smaller amount of 8.2 BTC, worth about $606,000, to a Coinbase Prime deposit address. Coinbase Prime, the institutional arm of Coinbase, offers custody and trading services for large clients. The transfers have been described as custody-related steps, not sales, indicating that the government is preparing to return the Bitcoin to Bitfinex as ordered by a federal court.
The movement of these Bitcoin traces back to a 2025 court ruling that required the seized Bitcoin to be returned to Bitfinex in-kind as restitution. The hack itself remains one of the largest thefts in crypto history, with roughly 119,754 BTC stolen from Bitfinex in 2016. In 2022, federal authorities recovered about 94,636 BTC after the arrest of Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, who had been laundering the stolen funds.
Bitfinex plans to use the recovered Bitcoin to redeem Recovery Right Tokens issued to users who lost funds in the 2016 breach. Additionally, the exchange intends to allocate at least 80% of any remaining net proceeds toward repurchasing and burning its UNUS SED LEO token. The transfer of 264.863 BTC in October 2026 represents a small portion of the US government's total Bitcoin holdings, which exceeded 328,000 BTC as of mid-2026.