This amount of is part of the 119,756 BTC stolen from the exchange back in August, 2016.
Since the hack, the exchange has collaborated with international law enforcement agencies to provide information that will aid in the investigations.
The US Government had in November of last year, alerted Bitfinex that it had obtained some BTCs believed to be from the 2016 hack.
The RRT Token Created After the 2016 Hack
Based on the recovery strategy put in place after the hack, Bitfinex will liquidate the coins to USD and distribute the funds to all RRT (Recovery Right Token) holders. The RRT token was part of a unique approach to the August 2016 hack. Initially, each affected user was credited BFX tokens in the ratio of 1 BFX to each $1 lost.
The U.S Government, through its law enforcement agencies, has returned 27.66270285 Bitcoins to Bitfinex.
Bitfinex further explains as follows how the RRT token was created and for what reason.
Within eight months of the security breach, all BFX token holders had their tokens redeemed at 100 cents on the dollar or exchanged their tokens for, directly or indirectly, shares of the capital stock of iFinex Inc.
All BFX tokens were destroyed within this process. Additionally, Bitfinex created a tradable Recovery Right Token (RRT) for BFX holders that converted BFX tokens into shares of iFinex.
Each time stolen property related to the 2016 hack is retrieved, the digital assets are converted to USD and distributed to each RRT holder at a ratio of 1:1.
The CEO of Bitfinex, Giancarlo Devasini, is optimistic that ongoing efforts by law enforcement agencies across the US and the world will eventually aid in the recovery of the lost assets from 2016. He reaffirmed that the exchange will continue to provide information and assistance to law enforcement agencies until the situation is resolved.
