PANews reported on January 2nd that, according to DL News, Ilya Lichtenstein, the hacker in the 2016 Bitfinex Bitcoin heist, has been released early. She claims this is thanks to the First Step Act signed by US President Trump in 2018, which allows prisoners to receive reduced sentences by participating in rehabilitation programs. Lichtenstein was sentenced to five years in prison in November 2024 for assisting in the laundering of nearly 120,000 bitcoins (worth approximately $4.5 billion at the time of the heist). His wife, Heather Morgan (online name Razzlekhan), was sentenced to 18 months for aiding and abetting the crime and was released in October 2025.