The Hong Kong-based bitcoin exchange, Bitfinex, suspended trading earlier today citing an undisclosed security breach and confirming that some of its users had lost money. Currently $65 million in bitcoin is rumored to have been lost in a cyber-attack.
As things stand, the company hasn’t made further public comments, nor has it confirmed the figure stated above. A Reddit user, who may or may not be the company’s Director of Community and Product Development, posted that Bitfinex had lost 119,756 bitcoins in the attack. If that figure is indeed accurate, this is one of the largest bitcoin heists ever, being dwarfed only by the Mt.Gox incident.
According to this same reddit user there was nothing that individual users could have done to protect themselves, nor was it Bitfinex’s fault. Instead he seemingly pointed the finger at Bitgo, a Palo Alto-based security vendor. However, Bitgo denied suffering any breach.
Again, it’s not clear if this user really is who he’s claiming to be, so take all of this with a grain of salt. So far the company’s only official statements have confirmed losing an undisclosed number of bitcoins.
Bitcoin value fell more than 20% as news of this breach spread online.
Source: Mashable | Image via Bitcoin Gator
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