Stolen Bitcoin worth more than $5bn (£3.7bn) has been seized by the US Department of Justice – the largest ever confiscation of its kind.

Officials also arrested and charged two people on Tuesday with attempting to launder the money, which amounts to nearly 120,000 Bitcoin.

The funds, stolen by a hacker who breached a cryptocurrency exchange in 2016, were valued at about $71m.

But, with the rise in Bitcoin’s value, it is now valued at more than $5bn.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite Jr said the seizure was proof the government “will not allow cryptocurrency to be a safe haven for money laundering or a zone of lawlessness within our financial system”.

–BBC