UK Bitcoin Exchange Suspends Services After Losing Almost £3.5m In Hack

UK-based bitcoin exchange Bitstamp has suspended its services after some of its operational wallets were compromised, resulting in a loss of almost 19,000 BTC worth £3.43m.

Following the security breach on Janaury 4, Bitstamp assured customers that their bitcoins held with the exchange prior to suspension of services on January 5 (at 9am UTC) are completely safe and will be honoured in full.

Suspended systems

A statment on the company’s website read: “On January 4th, some of Bitstamp’s operational wallets were compromised, resulting in a loss of less than 19,000 BTC. Upon learning of the breach, we immediately notified all customers that they should no longer make deposits to previously issued bitcoin deposit addresses. To repeat, customers should NOT make any deposits to previously issued bitcoin deposit addresses. As an additional security measure, we suspended our systems while we fully investigate the incident and actively engage with law enforcement officials.”

Bitstamp added that this breach represents a small fraction of company’s total bitcoin reserves, the overwhelming majority of which are said to be held in secure offline cold storage systems.
The firm said: “We appreciate customers’ patience during this disruption of services. We are working to transfer a secure backup of the Bitstamp site onto a new safe environment and will be bringing this online in the coming days.”

Customers can stay informed via updates on Bitstamp’s website, on Twitter (@Bitstamp) and through Bitstamp customer support at support@bitstamp.net.

How much do you know about Bitcoin? Take our quiz!