Billion-dollar Bitcoin hacker Ilya Lichtenstein thanks Trump for his early release from prison

Just over a year after being sentenced to five years in prison for stealing billions of dollars in Bitcoin, hacker Ilya Lichtenstein is walking free. Lichtenstein announced his release in a post on X, specifically crediting Trump: “Thanks to President Trump’s First Step Act, I was released from prison early. I remain committed to making a positive impact in cybersecurity as quickly as I can.”

The First Step Act Lichtenstein referred to is a criminal justice reform bill passed in 2018 during the first Trump administration that expands early release options, such as earned time credits. A Trump administration official confirmed the early release in a statement to CNBC, claiming that Lichtenstein “has served significant time on his sentence and is currently on home confinement consistent with the law and Bureau of Prisons policies.”

Lichtenstein’s wife, Heather Morgan, responded to his announcement post with a photo of the two of them. Morgan, who some may know as the infamous rapper “Razzlekhan” or the “Crocodile of Wall Street,” was also charged in a scheme to launder billions of dollars worth of stolen bitcoin in the hack of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex in 2016. She was sentenced to just 18 months in prison, but appears to have been released early, a development she announced from her bathtub in a post on X in October. Morgan and Lichtenstein were not arrested for the hacking until 2022. The duo has since been the subject of a Netflix docu-series and an upcoming movie.