HONG KONG—A new Bitcoin heist points to vulnerability issues with cryptocurrency.
Bitfinex, one of the largest U.S. dollar bitcoin exchanges, said on Aug. 2 that it lost 119,756 bitcoins after its platform was hacked, BankInfoSecurity.com reported. Law enforcement has been contacted, the company said in a statement.
Bitcoin's market rate dropped 20% following Bitfinex's announcement, although it has since bounced back to about $580. The company's losses amounted to approximately $69 million, according to exchange rates on Aug. 4, BankInfoSecurity.com said.
Zane Tackett, Bitfinex director of community and product development, said the company is evaluating its options for addressing customer losses.
"At this time we don't have any details that we can share on this, nor have we made any decisions regarding this," Tackett wrote of Reddit. "We'll continue to push out updates on this as information becomes available."
BankInfoSecurity.com said that Tackett refuted a suggestion that the theft might have been an inside job, but he did not share details how the exchange was compromised.
"We have a pretty small team and most of us have been here for a while," Tackett wrote. "We also have strict permission limits for who has access to what. Furthermore, I've been on the phone with our entire team and am nearly 100% certain that nobody on our team did this