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The film company Amazon MGM Studios has launched production of the feature film Razzlekhan, which will tell the story of the hack of the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange for 120,000 BTC in 2016. This is reported by Deadline. The film is based on a 2022 New York Times article about spouses Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, accused of laundering stolen funds. The director and screenwriter will be Hannah Marks. The title of the film corresponds to the rap pseudonym Morgan. In February 2022, US authorities detained the couple and confiscated bitcoins worth $3.6 billion. In the same month, Morgan was released on bail of $3 million. Liechtenstein remained in custody. In August 2023, the couple pleaded guilty in conspiracy to commit money laundering. Morgan faces up to 10 years in prison, Lichtenstein - up to 20 years. The latter denies any connection with the Bitfinex hack. According to court documents, Liechtenstein gained access to the exchange network using “advanced hacking tools.” He completed over 2,000 transactions, transferring 119,754 BTC from the exchange to his personal wallet. The defendant then deleted the access credentials and other browsing log files. He and his wife laundered funds in a variety of ways, from using fictitious identities and mixing services to opening business accounts and buying gold coins.

In 2023, the Polygon project recorded 15.24 million new accounts, while Ethereum recorded 15.4 million. This is evidenced by the Flipside report. New users were defined as wallets that made at least two transactions on a specific blockchain. Polygon was ahead of Ethereum in the first half of last year, but then slowed down its growth rate. “Polygon started with an impressive 2.8 million user acquisitions in January, representing more than 40% of the network's total in 2023,” the researchers explained. The Bitcoin blockchain took third place with 10.65 million new accounts. The top five are completed by Solana and Arbitrum. In total, the eight protocols studied attracted 62 million users. “Growth began in March, coinciding with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, which may have undermined trust in centralized institutions and triggered a flight to decentralized alternatives,” the analysts noted.#ETHEREUM #Polygon