Ever since started gaining value, hackers have targeted exchanges that provide digital asset and malicious entities have siphoned billions of dollars worth of since 2010. So far, over 1 million of the world’s has been stolen from exchanges and traders continue to leave vast quantities of funds on centralized platforms.
Also read:
Hackers Love to Profit from People Leaving Funds on Centralized Crypto Exchanges
Over the years, hackers have managed to make a lucrative career stealing from exchanges. Exchanges have seen digital intruders loot wallets since 2010 and crypto platforms are still being compromised in 2019. Last year, according to Chainalysis hackers managed to generate over $1 billion in revenue from simply robbing crypto exchanges. Moreover, Chainalysis explained in January 2019 that only were the culprits to most of 2018’s exchange hacks. It’s unclear exactly how many bitcoins have been stolen but over the last 10 years, it’s estimated that more than 1 million , has been pilfered from exchanges.
The amount of snatched coins is roughly around the same number of that Satoshi Nakamoto may possess and probably much more. Moreover, two of the biggest hacks make up most of the stolen over the last 8 years. Roughly 650,000 was taken from Mt. Gox back in 2014 and were stolen from Bitfinex in 2016. This means that more than 770,000 of the looted also gives the hackers 770,000 as well. Essentially, this means that there’s been more than $7.7 billion dollars worth of stolen at today’s exchange rates. All of those funds were taken prior to the fork so after August 1, 2017, the hackers who stole 770,000+ managed to acquire $303 million in as well.
A Look at Some of the Biggest Crypto Exchange Heists Since 2011
Back in 2011, Mt. Gox lost bitcoins well before they misplaced a great percentage of the total supply. On June 19, 2011, the exchange said they had lost worth of due to a “security breach.” At the time, in order to prove the exchange was solvent, the firm moved 424,242 into cold storage, which can be seen in . Then the exchange also misplaced approximately 2,609 by sending them to an unspendable address. The now-defunct exchange is also notorious for losing 850,000 in 2014 and allegedly the platform’s CEO Mark Karpeles of the missing coins after the exchange went under. The remaining 200,000 coins were to be dispersed to all the account holders who lost money, but the distribution process has been held up for years.
Most people don’t remember the platform Bitcoin7, but at one time the operation was the third largest exchange in 2011. Back on Oct. 5, 2011, the exchange said they or $39 million at today’s exchange rates. The loss of 5,000 was too much for Bitcoin7 to handle and the exchange never re-opened. Even though the company had promised to reimburse users, the restitution process never came to fruition and the website went dark. In 2012, during the , crypto enthusiasts saw an estimated total of 46,653 stolen from a total of 8 crypto-related businesses such as and . The same year Bitcoinica was hacked twice losing 38,000 in May and then in July, the platform lost another 40,000 . In September 2012, the platform Bitfloor 24,000 during a security breach.
2013 saw plenty of bitcoins stolen that year as the saw the loss of 1,666 , and the platform Bitmarket.eu with $400 million worth of . In October of 2013, GBL Exchange also with coins stealing 9,640 . The digital currency payment provider BIPS had a security breach which saw the loss of 1,295 . 2014 was no different as crypto advocates saw the major Mt. Gox hack but also saw and . Then in 2015, the Bitstamp hot was for 19,000 , 796 Exchange saw 1,000 stolen, and the Bitfinex hot lost 1,500 .
The very next year, Bitfinex saw an when hackers stole 119,756 . A few months later, Bitcurex lost 2,300 . During the bull run in 2017, there were plenty of exchange losses when Yapizon lost 3,831 , hackers stole $31 million from Bithumb, and -e with 66,000 . In 2018, Global scammed people out of $50 million and Gainbitcoin ran away with $300 million. In April 2018, the Indian exchange Coinsecure lost 438 and in September, the Japanese crypto exchange Zaif was hacked for 913 . The following month Maplechange customer funds swiping 913 . At the end of the year, Electroneum users saw 250 stolen from them.
More Than $8.2 Billion Worth of Stolen Since 2010
2019 is not over but users are still losing funds left and right on centralized platforms. It’s estimated that around $140 to $200 million worth of crypto was lost during the Quadrigacx mishap, and just recently, suffered a hack as well when 7,000 was stolen. Out of all the exchanges and third party service providers, mentioned hackers managed to steal 1,058,658 ($8.2 billion) in total and that’s just skimming the surface of big exchange hacks. The $8.2 billion also doesn’t account for the massive number of tied to at least 2/3 of the funds looted. The number of coins swiped from exchanges far exceeds Satoshi’s stash and people continue to leave their funds on centralized platforms. The 1 million coins out of 21 million in circulation that hackers have managed to rob is a great reminder to why should not be left on exchanges.
At .com we know people like to trade fiat for cryptos and that’s why we created where user funds are never stored on our servers. Our peer-to-peer exchange will launch on June 4, 2019, but you can create an account today and even set up a trade for when the platform goes live. The more that facilitate trades in a noncustodial fashion, the better because most crypto enthusiasts are tired of hearing about platforms losing millions.
What do you think about the 1 million coins stolen since 2011? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments below.
Image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, and Archive.org.
Did you know you can verify any unconfirmed transaction with our ? Simply complete a address search to view it on the . Plus, visit our to see what’s happening in the industry.
Published at Fri, 24 May 2019 15:16:49 +0000
