Bitcoin Hacker Ilya Lichtenstein Expresses Gratitude to Trump for Early Release from Prison

Just over a year after being sentenced to five years for stealing billions in Bitcoin, hacker Ilya Lichtenstein is now a free man. He shared his release on X, thanking Trump: “Thanks to President Trump’s First Step Act, I have been released from prison early. I remain committed to making a positive impact in cybersecurity as soon as I can.”

The First Step Act he mentioned is a criminal justice reform law enacted in 2018 during Trump’s first term, which broadens the criteria for early release, including earned time credits. A representative from the Trump administration confirmed Lichtenstein’s early release, stating that he “has served significant time on his sentence and is currently on home confinement consistent with statute and Bureau of Prisons policies.”

Lichtenstein’s wife, Heather Morgan, responded to his announcement with a photo of them together. Morgan, known to some as the notorious rapper “Razzlekhan” or “the Crocodile of Wall Street,” was also charged in connection with the scheme to launder billions of dollars in Bitcoin stolen during the 2016 Bitfinex hack. She received an 18-month sentence but was also released early, a fact she revealed in a bathtub post on X in October. The couple was arrested for the hack in 2022 and have since become the focus of a Netflix docuseries and an upcoming film.