Factbox - Notable cryptocurrency heists

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Factbox - Notable cryptocurrency heists

 

FILE PHOTO: A collection of Bitcoin (virtual currency) tokens are displayed in this picture illustration December 8, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/Illustration/File Photo

 

(Reuters) - There have been at least three dozen heists of cryptocurrency exchanges since 2011. Here are some of the major and other noteworthy hacks:

COINCHECK: Tokyo-based cryptocurrency trading exchange Coincheck suspended withdrawals on Friday after losing about 58 billion yen ($534 million) worth of virtual coins known as NEM to hackers.

 

BITFINEX: The Hong Kong-based cryptocrruency exchange, reported the theft of 119,756 bitcoins worth about $72 million in August, 2016. Bitfinex's theft was the second-biggest security breach ever of a digital currency exchange at the time.

 

MT. GOX: The now defunct Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange filed for bankruptcy in 2014 after losing some 850,00 bitcoins - then worth around half a billion U.S. dollars - and $28 million in cash from its bank accounts to hackers. Mt. Gox, which once handled 80 percent of the world's bitcoin trades, later said it had found 200,000 of the bitcoins.

 

CRYPTSY:A U.S. federal judge in Florida in July ordered Paul Vernon, the operator of the collapsed U.S. exchange to pay $8.2 million to customers after he failed to respond to a class-action lawsuit. The judge ruled that 11,325 bitcoins had been stolen in 2014 but did not identify the thief.

 

Other notable heists include Bter, which lost 7,170 bitcoins in 2015; BitMarket.eu, (18,788 bitcoins lost in 2012); Bitfloor, (24,000 bitcoins lost in 2012) and Bitcoinica, which lost a total of 102,101 bitcoins in three hacks during 2012.

 

Sources: Reuters, Professor Tyler Moore at the University of Tulsa, CryptoCompare and other digital currency information providers.

 

(Reporting by Suzanne Barlyn; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-2-1