Over $70 million worth of Bitcoin has been stolen after NiceHash breach

Over $70 million of Bitcoin has been stolen after NiceHash breach

Over $70 million worth of Bitcoin has been stolen after NiceHash breach

NiceHash, the cryptocurrency mining marketplace has been hacked, resulting in over $70 million in bitcoin being stolen from the wallets of NiceHash users. 

All of this stolen Bitcoin has been sent to a single Bitcoin address, which is controlled by an unknown party. In the meantime, NiceHash has suspended their services for 24 hours to investigate the situation. The company has also stated that they plan to restore the NiceHash service with the “highest security measures at the earliest opportunity”. 

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is continuing to soar in value, allowing the value of this stolen fortune to increase over time since its initial theft. Right now this high-profile hack has not resulted in a major decrease in Bitcoin’s market value. 

NiceHash has released the following statement regarding this hack, though at this time the company has not stated exactly how many Bitcoins were stolen from the service. 

  

   Unfortunately, there has been a security breach involving NiceHash website. We are currently investigating the nature of the incident and, as a result, we are stopping all operations for the next 24 hours.

Importantly, our payment system was compromised and the contents of the NiceHash Bitcoin wallet have been stolen. We are working to verify the precise number of BTC taken.

Clearly, this is a matter of deep concern and we are working hard to rectify the matter in the coming days. In addition to undertaking our own investigation, the incident has been reported to the relevant authorities and law enforcement and we are co-operating with them as a matter of urgency.

We are fully committed to restoring the NiceHash service with the highest security measures at the earliest opportunity.

We would not exist without our devoted buyers and miners all around the globe. We understand that you will have a lot of questions, and we ask for patience and understanding while we investigate the causes and find the appropriate solutions for the future of the service. We will endeavour to update you at regular intervals.

While the full scope of what happened is not yet known, we recommend, as a precaution, that you change your online passwords.

We are truly sorry for any inconvenience that this may have caused and are committing every resource towards solving this issue as soon as possible.

 

What needs to be noted here is that NiceHash is not a traditional Bitcoin mining pool, renting their users the company’s own hashpower to generate Bitcoins rather than act as a traditional mining pool where users combine their own resources. At this time it is unknown how this hack will affect other major mining pools or traders.  

After this hack, all of the stolen Bitcoin were transferred to a single wallet. The Bitcoin in this wallet is already worth over $72 million, a value that is expected to increase given Bitcoin’s current market trends. 

Over $70 million of Bitcoin has been stolen after NiceHash breach
(The value of the theif’s Bitcoin account)

NiceHash has recommended that their users change their passwords as a precaution, though after this hack it is hard to see many users continuing to use the service after this catastrophe. 

You can join the discussion on NiceHash’s hack on the OC3D Forums.  Â