BITCOIN was dealt another blow last night after South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb said $31.5 million was stolen by hackers causing the principle coin to fall from $6,742 to $6,562.
South Korean exchange Bithumb said in a notice on its website on Wednesday that it had stopped all trading after ascertaining “some cryptocurrencies worth about 35 billion won were seized between late yesterday and early morning today.”The exchange, thas now moved “all clients’ assets in safe cold wallets,” which operate on platforms not directly connected to the internet, adding that customers affected would be fully compensated.Mun Chong-hyun, chief analyst at ESTsecurity, warned that cryptocurrencies represent an ideal target for hackers.He said: “No security measures or regulations can 100 percent guarantee safety of virtual coins. It is held anonymously and in lightly-secured systems, which makes them an irresistible target."Earlier this month another South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Coinrail was hacked, marking loses of around $40 million.Ilia Kolochenko, CEO and founder of web security company High-Tech Bridge told Express.co.uk: "This particular incident will unlikely alter the grim security landscape of cryptocurrency exchanges."It is very good to know that the victims will be duly compensated after the breach, but all this raises the question of economical practicality to operate crypto-exchange business in such a manner.