The young cyber security expert was arrested by the FBI on Aug 2 after attending the Def Con hacking conference in Las Vegas, according to the website MotherBoard.
Hutchins is currently facing six counts of hacking-related charges from the United States Department of Justice (DoJ), including helping create, spread and maintain the banking Trojan Kronos between 2014 and 2015.
If found guilty, the computer expert could face a maximum sentence of 40 years in jail in the US, according to local media reports.
The judge at a Las Vegas court ruled on Friday that Hutchins could be released on US$30,000 (RM128,000) bail, saying the defendant was not a danger to the community nor a flight risk, though the judge ordered him to remain in the US with GPS monitoring.
Hutchins has pleaded not guilty to charges of creating and distributing the infamous Kronos banking malware and is set to be released on a US$30,000 bail on Monday, according to Adrian Lobo, Hutchins’ defence attorney.
Since the clerk’s office closed at 4pm local time, Hutchins could not get bail in time on Friday, according to the attorney.
He expects Hutchins will be released on Monday but will need to appear in Wisconsin for facing the grand jury indictment on Tuesday (Aug 8).
“We intend to fight the case,” Lobo said on Facebook Live to local reporter Christy Wilcox, at the court house.
“He has dedicated his life to researching malware, not to try to harm people. He has tremendous community support, local and abroad and in the computer world.”
The Kronos malware, which is spread through malicious email attachments, can be used to steal banking passwords and other credentials from infected computers.
Hutchins, known as MalwareTech on Twitter, is quite active online, but since Aug 2, no tweet has been posted on his account @MalwareTechBlog.
“I can confirm @MalwareTechBlog was detained yesterday and FBI/US Marshalls won’t tell me where he is,” Andrew Mabbitt, a cyber security company founder and Hutchins’ friend, tweeted on Aug 3, saying that he does not believe the charges against Hutchins.
“He spent his career stopping malware, not writing it,” tweeted Mabbitt.
Hutchins was hailed a hero in May for discovering a “kill switch” for the WannaCry ransomware to delay its global spreading as it infected and forced hospitals, telecom providers and many other businesses worldwide to shut down.
The WannaCry ransomware encrypted files of hundreds of thousands of computers and then charged victims Bitcoins worth US$300 to US$600 as ransom.
On the night of Aug 2, right after Hutchins’s detention, the hackers behind the global WannaCry ransomware attack abruptly cashed out all their ransom payments within 15 minutes, though there is no indication that the two events are connected.