300 Stolen Bitcoin from the 2016 Bitfinex Hack Moves for the First Time

Roughly 300 Bitcoin, at the current rate of $5,300 per BTC amounts to about $1.5 million that was never recovered following the hack of Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange has been moved.

This is the first time these coins have been moved which appears to be in a total of 13 new addresses. These wallets have no previous transaction either so the identity of the hacker remains a mystery.

Redditor u/jankeldidi shared the post on the Bitcoin subreddit that shows a list of 13 addresses associated with the Bitfinex hack that is now empty. Moreover, a link to a GitHub also shows over 2,000 addresses that were used to receive coins from the affected users.

On August 2nd, 2016, 119,756 BTC were stolen from the Bitfinex exchange that amounted to about $72 million. The hack exploited a weakness in the multisig system of the Bitfinex that resulted in the loss of $18% of what was lost by MT. Gox.

On that day, Bitcoin price fell 20 percent going from about $600 to as low as $480 USD before it started making recovering. In February 2019, less than 30 BTC amounting about $104,000 were recovered by the US government.

Protect your Cryptos

One of the pressing concerns of cryptocurrency space remains the hackings that have resulted in numerous investors losing a significant amount of their money. Till now, in this year we have seen several cases of crypto exchanges reporting loss of funds due to a security breach including Bithumb and Cryptopia.

2016’s hack wasn’t the only one Bitfinex encountered. A year before that, Bitfinex had 1,500 BTC stolen after its hot wallet was hacked in May 2015.

It’s been three years since Bitfinex’s latest hack occurred and despite all this time, the fact that these coins have been still out there and now moved should serve as a warning for those leaving their digital assets on the exchanges.

Though many customers were lucky to have received their Bitcoin of its equivalent value in some other cryptocurrency, it isn’t usually the case as we have seen in many hacks throughout these last years. Getting back your digital currencies is an exception and not a rule.

It is essential for the users to learn the basics of the private keys and the safe storage of your cryptos. Exchanges often hold huge amounts of digital currencies on behalf of its users that we have seen time and again how serves as a honeypot for hackers who are looking to make millions.

Read Also: ‌New York Attorney General’s Office Accuses Bitfinex Of Covering $850 Million Losses Using Tether Funds

Bitcoins from the Bitfinex Hack 2016 moved today from Bitcoin