One more day of record-breaking Bitcoin values, one more day of an exchange closing down to ‘hacking’, this time in South Korea where a crypto currency exchange called Youbit said at 4.35 am local time that it has been hacked for a total of 17% of its assets and would now be marking down all customer’s crypto currency by 75%.
In other words and simpler math: the exchange said some 20% of its assets were stolen and therefore the customers lose 75% of their money. That makes no sense to me, but then again, who am I.
Youbit is luckily for most South Korean millennials a smaller player, because we are sure many youngsters in the Korean peninsula will be trying to contact their providers today to see if there’s any money left in their account.
Two weeks ago, South Korean President Moon had already warned his countrymen to beware of Bitcoin investing, as Finance Ministry officials had made him aware that some 3% of the nation was already invested in crypto currency.
Exchange ‘hacks’ after which the sites shut down are becoming quite frequent now that the most popular crypto currency Bitcoin is hitting new record highs every week.
Youbit had already been hacked in April of this year, when North Korean cyber criminals targeted the site and ‘allegedly’ stole 4,000 Bitcoins.
This news comes amid reports that state-sanctioned North Korean hackers continue to target crypto currency companies and exchanges, particularly as a means of enriching the nation and countering the effects of imposed economic sanctions.
The most famous Bitcoin hack was that of exchange site Mount Gox, which suspended trading in 2014 after a hack that reportedly stole 850k Bitcoin from customers. The site was at that time handling over 70% of all Bitcoin transactions worldwide.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $18,800.
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A lot of these exchanges are going to get 'hacked' soon….