Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan, one of the Bitfinex hackers, just thanked President Trump for her release from prison. She was released a few days ago to little fanfare amidst more famous pardons.
The community has been confused; even if Trump is trading pardons for bribes, what could she actually offer him? However, Trump’s desire to retain BTC seized from the hackers might hold the key.
Trump Releases Razzlekhan
President Trump’s decision to pardon CZ, the former CEO of Binance, last week shocked and polarized the Web3 space.
However, one thing this act also did was steal the spotlight from other acts of crypto clemency. Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan, one of the famous Bitfinex hackers, just thanked President Trump for her early release:
In a recent video recorded from a bathtub, Razzlekhan gave a “shoutout to Papa Trump” for shortening her prison sentence. She was only set to serve 18 months for money laundering, most of which had already been completed.
Apparently, her release date was supposed to be in January 2026 before Trump’s intervention.
Why Set Her Free?
This act of clemency has left the community baffled. Razzlekhan may be an infamous crypto personality, but there’s no clear reason for Trump to reduce her sentence. CZ had his business connections with the President, and Ulbricht enjoyed community support, but what does Razzlekhan have?
After all, SBF remains in prison despite his high stature, and his extensive political contributions largely went against Trump.
Even if one assumes that the President is purely assigning crypto clemency based on personal favors and corruption, it’s hard to find a clear benefit to him. Her release largely went unnoticed, so it’s not even a PR stunt.
Possible Bitcoin Reserve Connections
Trump has proposed creating a “Crypto Strategic Reserve”, similar to the US oil reserve, to strengthen national crypto holdings. But if the government were to reimburse Bitfinex victims, it could lose more than $10 billion in Bitcoin from that pool.
By portraying Razzlekhan’s prosecution as an overreach of Biden-era crypto enforcement, the Trump administration could potentially justify keeping the seized BTC as state property.
To be clear, though, this is speculation. Trump has a material interest in keeping the seized Bitfinex assets, and Razzlekhan is only a small piece of that puzzle. If there is a plan to hold onto this BTC, it’s in the early stages.
Still, Trump’s crypto pardons are causing a ton of chaos. If blatant criminals keep walking free and resuming business operations, it could cause irreversible damage.
