According to an official statement on their website, Bitgrail has closed up shop as a result of a massive hack on one of their Nano - the currency formerly known as RaiBlocks - wallets.

While cryptocurrency exchanges are obvious targets for hackers, this is the first hack of this scale in quite some time. Ever since the infamous Mt Gox hack of 2013, exchanges have been "relatively" safe.

But with the growing value of cryptocurrency, these fledgling companies are at greater risk for manipulation by hackers.

Nano's core team left an official statement on their Medium blog regarding the matter:

We had no knowledge of BitGrail’s insolvency prior to February 8th.

In our conversation yesterday (which you can find attached here, this link has been edited to redact a private email.), Firano informed us of missing funds from BitGrail’s wallet. An option suggested by Firano was to modify the ledger in order to cover his losses — which is not possible, nor is it a direction we would ever pursue.

BitGrail is an independent business and Nano is not responsible for the way Firano or BitGrail conduct their business. We have no visibility into the BitGrail organization, nor do we have control over how they operate.

We now have sufficient reason to believe that Firano has been misleading the Nano Core Team and the community regarding the solvency of the BitGrail exchange for a significant period of time.

As the cryptocurrency market watched its flagship coins drop in value by over 50% in the past month, news of this hack could serve to further deter potential investors from dipping their toes into the crypto pool.

The rest of us will be hodling.

What do you think about the latest hack?

Sloppy management from #Bitgrail or a coordinated attempt by the Federal Reserve to undermine the legitimacy of #cryptocurrency?

Let me know in a comment!

Can't get enough of me? Follow me on Instagram!

Check out some of my other posts here:

• Watching This Video Will Make You Want To Move To Thailand (And Not For The Hot Estonian Chick, Either)
• In Only 3 Days After Pre-ICO Launch, Crypto Investment Fund Pecunio Has Already Raised Almost $2m
• Shill Of The Day: Why You Should Put Your Daughter's College Fund Into Lucyd's New ICO
• All I Want Is A Billion Dollars, A Rock-Solid Six Pack, And To Smash A Different Hard-Bodied Fitness Model Every Night - Is That Too Much To Ask?
• How To Be Successful In Just 100 Hours A Week
• Discipline, Fearlessness, And Other Lies Sold To You By Clever Marketers
• The Problem With PentaCore And Cryptocurrency Mutual Funds In General (And What To Do About It)
• Stock Trading Platform Robinhood Latest Company To Cash In On Crypto Craze With New Cryptocurrency Exchange
• How To Actually Get More Likes And Followers On Instagram
• Japan's Largest Bank Set To Open Cryptocurrency Exchange In April 2018
• There Is Now A Japanese Cryptocurrency-Themed Pop Group
• WaltonChain (WTC) Voted #1 At SE Asia Blockchain Summit... but who cares?
• Basic Attention Token (BAT) - another token that unsuccessfully answers the question, "Why not just use an ad blocker?"
• Request Network (REQ) setting up a $30 million dollar fund for startups
• If Warren Buffett Invested In Crypto, He Would Stock Up Now While The Market Is Collapsing
• Dispelling The Myths Behind Tron (TRX), The Most Misunderstood Coin In Crypto
• VeChain (VEN) Being Shilled HARD In r/Cryptocurrency - 50 Posts In The Last Week
• Switzerland Sees Crypto As Their Chance To Woo Drug Dealers, Saudi Princes And Shady Billionaires
• NVIDIA Blasts Retailers For Selling GPUs To Cryptominers Instead Of Gamers
• The No BullShit Guide To Being Successful (Read This To Die Instantly)
• Schizophrenic South Korea Can't Decide If They Want To Ban Crypto Or Not
• I'm Not A Religious Man, But I Thank God For Every Failure I've Ever Had
• Why Creative Work Is Its Own Reward And How To Get Better At The Things You Hate

Follow, resteem and smash dat mf like button...