Judge freezes 96 bitcoins from ransomware on Bitfinex

British court ordered cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex to freeze 96 bitcoins, or almost 790,000 euros at the current price. according to Chainalysis, the digital pieces come from an attack by Ransomware.

In October 2019, a company victim of a ransom-software has agreed, through his insurer, to pay 109 bitcoins in order to regain control of his computers and data.

While the company, whose identity has not been revealed, quickly regained access to its machines, its insurer then worked with the specialist in blockchain analysis, Chainalysis, to track bitcoins sent to hackers.

Although a dozen BTC were immediately exchanged for fiat money, the majority (96 bitcoins) were transferred to a wallet belonging to the cryptocurrency exchange platform Bitfinex.

So, last December, the United Kingdom Supreme Court ordered Bitfinex to freeze the bitcoins kept in this wallet, reports NewMoneyReview, which specifies that the court decision was made public only on January 17, 2020.

The judge in charge of the case also asked Bitfinex to provide all the information he had on the holder of this famous wallet.

According to the London media, this is the first time that the Supreme Court has expressly declared that cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, constitute property.