BTER, one of the leading online Bitcoin exchange sites based in China, announced only hours ago that their site has been hacked again, this time resulting in a loss of 7,170 Bitcoins having a value of around $1.75 million.
The Bitcoins were stolen from their cold wallet and first moved to one Bitcoin wallet and then on to another. The theft has led BTER to go offline for now, promising to give information for people to cash out the coins not stolen as well as promising a 720 Bitcoin bounty to anyone who can give information that can get them back the coins.
The transaction where it shows that 7,170 Bitcoins were transferred away to the hackers wallet, from there it was transferred yet again.
“7170 BTC got stolen from our cold wallet in this transaction: https://blockchain.info/tx/f5b0363f03e1ed8bb812c135361ea93590c831ce9f13a3750be1b93575baccc6. 720 BTC bounty for chasing it back. All wallets have been shut down and withdrawals of the unaffected coins will be arranged later.” BTER wrote on their website shortly after going offline.
The Bitcoin value naturally took a massive hit right after this was announced, losing almost $40 in its value in a matter of minutes. It is speculated that the value was inflated prior to the attack by the group who stole it, to ensure that they could get the best possible price for the coins. Let’s hope the coins are returned so we won’t have yet another case of stolen coins which ends up closing down another cryptocurrency exchange site.