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The victims getting their money back would defeat the whole purpose of Bitcoin. No one knows who originally owned it.

How about cash it out and trickle it down to us... or is all that just gonna magically disappear?


Well you could just reverse all the transactions. But they probably won't do that.
not really? presumably many people transfer via platforms like Coinbase that use a shared wallet system. You can't just "send the money back where it came from" as those wallets might not actually be controlled by the funds owner.
Coin base keeps transaction logs.

Unless this went through a mixer, Bitcoin is quite transparent.

Still easier to just transfer it all to the Treasury of course and screw the victims which is probably what will happen.

Two things are true:

* It's not as simple as sending the transaction back to the previous holder

* With some basic detective work the paper trails exist to find many of the victims and verify the amount that was lost.

Even if the victims get their money back it would only account for 25% or so because the price of BTC has moved so far since they lost it. (I think many victims will successfully petition for their money back)
In theory the court should give them back the actual bitcoin, not the monetary equivalent at the time. In a just world, anyway.

Based on current judicial trends, they’ll probably get Coinbase coupons worth 50% of a different coin or something.

Probably what will happen again and again. If they can do this, why stop at Cambodia? Watch as DOJ begins seizing more and more Bitcoin from everywhere.
Surely it would be possible for victims to come forward and provide a paper trail of WhatsApp transcripts and blockchain transactions.
That's the thing with Bitcoin, all transactions are permanently stored in a public ledger.
Unless the criminals used the Lightning Network of course, not likely though since the amount is so large.
It's part of America's new Strategic Crypto Reserve where Uncle Sam holds bags for crypto bros.
more likely to be used as a reserve to buy up the trillion dollar national debt
It is definitely going to magically disappear, as in used as funding for ICE.

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