Crypto Exchanges Are Being Hacked, Cryptocurrencies Are Being Stolen, But None Of These Seem To Keep Millionaire Investors Away From The Wild West Of Assets

South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb is following Coinrail's footsteps lately in being trespassed by hackers who left it with their bags full. Two weeks ago Coinrail was hacked for $40 million-worth of cryptocurrencies and now it came Bithumb's turn. Although there aren't yet too many details revealed regarding the hack it seems that the total value off the loss is of around $31 million.

Despite spending $9 million dollars annually on security measures according to CoinDesk Korea, Bithumb, "managed" to get robbed recently and cause the price of Bitcoin a slightly $200 fall in just a few hours. Although there isn't any official statement yet on what currency the hackers have their hands on, it seems that the XRP wallets have been compromised.

"Based on data from CoinMarketCap, Bithumb accounted for 10 percent of the global trading volume of XRP over the last 24 hours, with a total of $32 million-worth changing hands."
-www.coindesk.com

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Although Bithumb's hack is a small child comparing it with Coinchecks's $530 million hack, the South Korean crypto exchange has already stated today that it will pay back from its funds all the affected users. Their statement appears to be a sign of maturity among crypto exchanges all over the world and it was even praised by the founder of Litecoin, Charlie Shrem, on twitter.

"Bithumb hacked for $30 million but covering all losses. Out industry is getting better and stronger."
-Charlie Shrem

Bithumb is not the first crypto exchange to have been hacked since the existence of such exchanges , as reports show it, and will probably be not the last one either. In the last year more than $800 million worth of cryptocurrencies have been stolen from crypto exchanges such as Coincheck, Coinrail, NiceHash, Youbit and Coindash.

Considering that just as stocks need exchanges, cryptos need crypto exchanges, thus it is clear that crypto exchanges are here and are here to stay. Comparing them with stock exchanges the only thing in common they same to have is that they both are places to trade assets, but nothing much more than this. Although with cryptos investors have gained 10 times their investment in just one year they also risk too often loosing everything they invested in seconds when such an exchange is hacked and their coins are stolen. Luckily some exchanges are refunding their affected users.

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For someone who wonders where could these stolen coins be moved after a heist the answer might be: ShapeShift. ShapeShift offers cryptocurrency trading without collecting personal data of its users making it the perfect place to exchange stolen coins into Monero, for example, and then Monero into FIAT hence there is a crypto financial paradise still available for such thieves.
Important steps towards protecting innocent investors from future losses in crypto hacks are taken place though by regulatory measure and decentralized exchanges such as OAX Foundation who will be more transparent in operations and fees than the current exchange model, according to Bloomberg.

Despite multiple hacks occurred on crypto exchanges from the famous Mt.Gox until now there is still an appetite for such investments coming from investors all of the world. According to NewsBtc, a poll that was conducted by Capgemini on 19 of the most wealthy markets from Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America and North America, 55.9% of the millionaire investors from the poll have their eyes on cryptos this year. Unfortunately though only a few are probably aware about the risk of holding their assets on exchanges and stack them in cold storage wallets, but crypto exchanges seem to mature over time as well as the crypto market and its investors.

What's your take on the recent crypto exchanges hacks and how do you see them affecting the market?

References:
https://www.coindesk.com/bithumb-exchanges-31-million-hack-know-dont-know/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-20/cryptocurrency-markets-are-juicy-targets-for-hackers-timeline
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-20/new-crypto-exchanges-don-t-want-to-hold-your-money-quicktake
https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/06/19/millionaires-interested-cryptocurrencies-survey-finds/

Thanks for your attention,
Ace