Bitfinex will be awarding $400 million for the successful recovery of bitcoins lost in the infamous August 2016 hack. The offer is also open to the hackers themselves who pilfered around 120,000 BTC, worth $1.3 billion (at today’s rates).
In an official announcement today, controversy laced exchange Bitfinex said it’s offering $400 million to folks who can connect them with the hackers who lifted around 120,000 BTC from the platform in 2016.
The hackers stand a chance of ‘winning’ the ‘reward’ themselves. Only if they are willing to return the stolen Bitcoins, Bitfinex added. The reward sum is a percentage of the value of the stolen Bitcoins (at today’s prices).
And Bitfinex will pay the amount only if it recovers all the coins. As per the exact words from the update:
Today’s announcement of a reward is our latest effort to recover these stolen funds. Those who put Bitfinex in contact with the hacker will receive 5% of the total property recovered (or equivalent funds or assets at current market values), and the hackers will receive 25% of the total property recovered (or equivalent funds or assets at current market values). Any payments made to those connecting Bitfinex with the hackers and the hackers themselves will be classified as costs of recovery of the stolen property.
The aggregate rewards available under this programme could be worth up to approximately US$400 million at the current BTC price if all bitcoins are fully recovered. The bitcoins stolen minus recoveries in 2019 are worth $1.344 billion today, with 30 per cent of that amount equal to $403,288,427.
The exchange is not at all proud of the incident, it noted. And has taken considerable measures to address the security loopholes and vulnerabilities leveraged during the hack.
So much so, that Bitfinex has also decided to keep the identities of the hackers a secret. The exchange will request a deposit of 1 Satoshi from the wallet that contains the stolen BTC stash. This is to ascertain the identity of the hackers.
After establishing contact, Bitfinex has ensured that the process will happen with utmost security.
Citing the recent Twitter and Ledger hacks, Bitfinex acknowledged that literally, anyone can become a target for ‘ingenious crypto crimes.’ Nonetheless, all-round security is the exchange’s number one concern right now.
Bitfinex has worked tirelessly with law firms to recover the stolen Bitcoins. As a result, U.S based authorities were able to recover around 28 Bitcoins, which the exchange then returned to their rightful owners (in USD).
Apart from this, Bitfinex has also compensated the affected users by issuing them BFX tokens. These tokens appreciated in value through consecutive bouts of trading after the 2016 hack (in the same year).
After they achieved a $1 valuation per token, redemptions began in September 2016, and all customers were able to redeem their losses fairly.