Share this article
The FBI is Investigating a $1.3 Million Bitcoin Theft
The FBI is investigating a report filed by an anonymous Bitfinex user alleging that funds were stolen from their account.
By Stan Higgins
Updated Sep 11, 2021, 12:32 p.m. Published Oct 6, 2016, 8:05 p.m.
The FBI is investigating a report filed by an unnamed Bitfinex user alleging that funds were stolen from their account, CoinDesk has learned.
According to an incident report filed on 14th September, a Cambridge, Massachusetts, resident stated that they lost $1.3m in bitcoin tied to the hack and subsequent $70m theft from Bitfinex.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
The Cambridge Police told CoinDesk that the matter had been referred to the FBI after an initial investigation. Bitfinex representatives have previously said that they are working with the FBI as part of its investigation into the hack.
The incident report – and word that the FBI is looking into the matter – offers a rare detail into the post-hack investigation said to be taking place. However, the status of the investigation and the extent to which the FBI has pursued the lead remains unknown at this time.
The resident said that they learned that $1.3m had been stolen from their Bitfinex account. According to the document, the user had $3.4m in total personal holdings.
It was further reported that the loss incurred was reduced to $720,000 when factoring in IOU tokens issued by Bitfinex after the exchange initiated its recovery efforts.
The document does contain one other idiosyncrasy. The reporting officer noted that the amount translated to "70,000,000 in bitcoin", which roughly corresponds to the amount, in dollars, lost during the hack.
The Bitfinex hack rocked the bitcoin world when it occurred in early August, resulting in the loss of nearly 120,000 bitcoins. The incident impacted bitcoin markets during the month that followed, though prices have since recovered.
H/t Brian Cohen, MrFelt
The text of this report has been updated for clarity.
Image Credit: Arnaldo Jr / Shutterstock.com
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Crypto Trading Volumes Deteriorated Across Board Last Month as Market Slumped: JPMorgan
Bitcoin, ether and most majors fell last month as spot, derivatives and stablecoin volumes dropped and U.S. crypto ETPs saw heavy outflows.
What to know:
- Spot, stablecoin, DeFi and NFT volumes slumped around 20% month-on-month in November as volatility and selling froze trading activity, according to JPMorgan.
- U.S. bitcoin spot ETFs saw $3.4 billion in net outflows and ether ETPs had their worst month on record, the report said.
- Total crypto market cap fell 17% last month to $3 trillion, with bitcoin down 17% and ether down 22%.
Top Stories
