CBC News CBC News Navigation Home Opinion World Canada Politics Business Health Entertainment Technology & Science Video Technology & Science Quirks & Quarks Blog Spark Photo Galleries Bitcoins worth $94M stolen in hack on Bitfinex exchange Bitcoin value plunges after news of second-biggest bitcoin exchange security breach Thomson Reuters Posted: Aug 03, 2016 8:40 AM ET Last Updated: Aug 03, 2016 10:46 AM ET The 120,000 bitcoins stolen from the Bitfinex exchange represent about 0.75 per cent of all bitcoin in circulation.Nearly 120,000 units of digital currency bitcoin worth about $94 million ($72 million US) were stolen from the exchange platform Bitfinex in Hong Kong, making it the second-biggest security breach ever of such an exchange.Bitfinex is one of the largest exchanges for bitcoin, and is known in the digital currency community for having a platform that has deep liquidity in the U.S.

ANALYSIS: Why bitcoin isn't dead yet Bitcoin bank Flexcoin shuts down after $600,000 heist Zane Tackett, Director of Community & Product Development for Bitfinex, told Reuters on Wednesday that 119,756 bitcoin had been stolen from users' accounts and that the exchange had not yet decided how to address customer losses."The bitcoin was stolen from users' segregated wallets," he said.Bitcoin plunged just over 23 per cent on Tuesday after the news broke.On Wednesday it was up 1 per cent at $545.20 US on the BitStamp platform.Tackett added that the breach did not "expose any weaknesses in the security of a blockchain", the technology that generates and processes bitcoin, a web-based "cryptocurrency" that can move across the globe anonymously without the need for a central authority.0.75% of bitcoin in circulation The volume stolen amounts to about 0.75 per cent of all bitcoin in circulation."It's the biggest USD exchange, so outside China it's the one that everyone has an account with," said Antony Lewis, a bitcoin expert in Singapore.

"It's very liquid, folk can trade on margin, lots of daily volume."It is not yet clear whether the theft was an inside job or whether hackers were able to gain access to the system externally.Bitfinex suspended trading on Tuesday after it discovered the breach.top litecoin faucetIt said on its website that it was investigating and cooperating with the authorities.bitcoin what is xbtThe attack on Bitfinex was reminiscent of a similar but larger breach at MtGox, a Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange that was forced to file for bankruptcy in early 2014 after hackers stole an estimated $850 million ($650 million US) worth of customers' bitcoins.ethereum miner euStay Connected with CBC News Mobile Facebook Podcasts Alerts Newsletter Top News Headlines Tom Mulcair raises red flags after Canadian sniper breaks record in Iraq Free trade between provinces?ethereum price converter

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Be ready to hand over your source code Heat wave suffocates American Southwest on 1st day of summer Research into exoskeleton walking devices big leap forward for human-robot interactions Crack in Antarctic ice shelf ready to produce 5,000-square-kilometre iceberg How cats managed to take over the world (it's our fault) Why your morning caffeine fix could be in jeopardy, given a warming planet 'Tell people not to panic': Experts say Canada's caterpillar and worm infestation will end Is China the world's new scientific superpower?Scientists find baby bird trapped in 99-million-year-old amberFebruary 22, 2017 10:05 AM Top Bitcoin trading platform Bitfinex was hit yesterday late night by what its experts categorized as a "severe DDoS attack."The Bitfinex platform is under severe DDoS attack.We are working to return to normal operations ASAP — (@bitfinex) February 21, 2017 The attack hit around 21:30 UTC and lasted for about an hour before the Bitfinex crew managed to get everything under control.

While the DDoS attack didn't affect the Bitfinex API in the beginning, it was affected later on when Bitfinex turned security protections to the max to mitigate the DDoS attack.All services, the trading platform and the API, are now functional.The attack took place at about the same time Bitcoin broke through the $1,100 price barrier for the second time this year, getting once more closer to its all-time value of $1,216.73, recorded in November 2013 on the Mt.Bitcoin price across trading platforms at the time of the attack Bitcoin trading platforms often see DDoS attacks when Bitoin price surges.There's an urban myth that some of the smaller platforms hire hackers to launch DDoS attacks on their rivals, to drive traffic to their sites when Bitcoin price spikes and users are trying to play the market.Hackers have admitted in interviews of getting hired to launch attacks on Bitcoin portals, albeit they didn't reveal, or sometimes knew, who hired them.Bitfinex, a Hong Kong-based Bitcoin trader, faced its most severe cyber-incident in August 2016, when a hacker stole 119,756 Bitcoin, which is almost $134.4 million in today's price.