A hacker was sentenced to five years in a US prison for laundering the proceeds of one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts.

Last year, Ilya Lichtenstein pleaded guilty to hacking the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange in 2016 and stealing nearly 120,000 bitcoins.

He laundered the stolen cryptocurrency with the help of his wife, Heather Morgan, who used the alias Razzlekhan to promote her hip-hop music.

The bitcoin was worth around $70m (£55.3m) at the time of the theft, but had grown to more than $4.5bn by the time they were arrested.

The $3.6 billion in assets seized in the case was the largest financial seizure in Justice Department history, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said at the time.