A Majorly Successful Bitcoin Exchange Hack Took Place on Bitfinex Today
Breaking News About Bitcoin
Today was a bad day for holders of Bitcoin all around the world, but most especially those who had holdings with the Chinese exchange known as Bitfinex.
Yesterday's price of Bitcoin was trending between $600 USD to $620 USD per BTC before the hack and dropped sharply to a low of around $520 just after the hack. This sharp drop can be seen below in the price data provided by both Poloniex and Coindesk.
The currency has somewhat recovered since the hack and is holding roughly steady in the $560 USD to $570 USD range. Only time will tell how much damage was actually done and what the total estimates of loss due to the hack are in total.
At the time of this post Coindesk is reporting that Bitfinex has suspended trading and issued the following statements to the press regarding the hack and their current situation.
Bitfinex said:
"We are investigating the breach to determine what happened, but we know that some of our users have had their bitcoins stolen. We are undertaking a review to determine which users have been affected by the breach. While we conduct this initial investigation and secure our environment, Bitfinex.com will be taken down and the maintenance page will be left up."
"As we account for individualized customer losses, we may need to settle open margin positions, associated financing, and/or collateral affected by the breach," the statement read. "Any settlements will be at the current market prices as of 18:00 UTC."
More on this breaking news can be found here at Coindesk :
http://www.coindesk.com/bitfinex-shuts-down-customer-bitcoin-stolen/
They talk about 125K BTC stolen. That's a small MtGox.
@sictransitgloria At a rough price of $600 USD, 125k BTC would work out to around $75 million USD give or take depending on the exact price at the time of the theft. That's definitely not chump change for sure. This was no small heist by any means assuming that high of a loss estimate.
I would have to agree with you on the comparison. While it wasn't anywhere as much as the largest heist of all time from MtGox. It was without a doubt, an epic amount of money to have stolen in one fell swoop. It instantly tanked the price of BTC within minutes. Having to close the exchange while sorting it out also speaks volumes about the vulnerability exploited during the heist.
I feel bad for everyone who suffered losses and anyone who still has their assets currently frozen in the exchange while they get the whole mess sorted out.
I lost 4.1 BTC because of the breach. It could have been worse but it still sucks. I know others have lost more and although I hate to blame the victim, this is the second time bitfinex has been hacked and I put the blame on them. Since they didn't make security a priority bitcoin holders across the globe took a huge hit and is a huge setback to all crypto.
I'm sorry to hear that you suffered losses due to the hack. In this day and age and with the amount of money exchanges keep floating around 24/7 I really feel they have no excuse when it comes to these types of things. Anyone these days who wants a scapegoat can simply claim they were hacked as if it absolves them of all responsibility from the resulting consequences.
Computer security is an ever evolving field and the true professionals spend their entire careers and lives making sure they're up to speed if not 10 steps ahead of the other guys. In a case like this where the incident involves negligence, misconduct, or similar lackadaisical security protocols that put the financial well being of others at risk they should be held accountable for every cent lost.
Depending on how the investigation goes, I'm sure we'll see at the very least civil suits (and possibly criminal charges) levied against some of the major players involved with Bitfinex.
I couldn't agree with you more. There is no excuse for this type of negligence when there are this many peoples money at risk and the reputation of bitcoin itself at stake. I sincerely hope every cent is refunded and then bitfinex goes bankrupt. They have already been hacked once and they have been guilty of many questionable acts in the past few months like shutting down their exchange during major market moves. I have been calling them out consistently and have been warning people about them for months. Bitfinex should be ashamed of themselves but I highly doubt a greedy company such as bitfinex even has a conscience.
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Keep up the great work @alifton
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