BREAKING: Ethereum Whiz Virgil Griffith Springs Free from the Clink!

Hang onto your hats, crypto fans! Virgil Griffith, the Ethereum brainiac and early contributor, just got the early release green light after nearly five years behind bars for thumbing his nose at U.S. sanctions against North Korea. Talk about a twist in the tale!

Back in 2019, the 41-year-old got nabbed after jetting off to Pyongyang for a crypto conference. There, he dropped a bombshell with a talk titled "Blockchain for Peace," allegedly schooling North Korea on how to dodge sanctions and scrub their dirty money clean using crypto. U.S. prosecutors were not amused.

Griffith copped a plea in 2021 to one count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, getting slapped with a 63-month sentence and a $100,000 fine the following year. But guess what? The saga doesn't end there!

VIRGIL GRIFFITH IS OUT OF PRISON!!!

just released this morning! he'll be in a halfway house for a few weeks, and parole after that with work restrictions (so a pardon is still important), but HE IS OUT 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

On July 16, U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel cut Griffith's sentence down to 56 months, effective August 2. The judge tipped his hat to Griffith's clean record before this mess and the rough ride he had in the slammer. Even though Griffith had some disciplinary hiccups inside, the judge figured the threat he posed had "somewhat dissipated." Who saw that coming?

Griffith’s 'curiosity'

Griffith's legal eagles have been singing the same tune all along: his talk was just a mashup of info anyone could find online, driven more by a geeky thirst for knowledge than any criminal master plan. One of his lawyers even called the whole trip the "culmination of Virgil's unfortunate obsession with North Korea." Talk about a passion project gone wrong!

A legend in Ethereum's early days and a bigwig behind the Ethereum Name Service, Griffith's story has had everyone from crypto buffs to national security wonks glued to their screens.

And get this—his release comes hot on the heels of North Korean hackers like Lazarus Group pulling off heists worth billions from crypto firms over the last decade. Coincidence? You decide!

Griffith was chilling in a federal prison in Michigan, but now he's set to walk free just after the August 2 order kicks in. Stay tuned, folks—this story's far from over!