106  Blockchain

• In December 2017, a small South Korean cryptocurrency exchange

called Youbit (formerly known as Yapizon) was hacked. This was

another hacking attempt for Youbit. Hackers stole 17% of the

exchange’s holdings which led to them filing for bankruptcy on the

same day.

• In December 2017, the Bithumb cryptocurrency exchange has another

hacking incident. Hackers managed to gain access to an employee’s

personal computer and stole the details of over 30,000 Bithumb users.

Bithub users started noticing their account balance being drained post

this incident.

• In April 2017, a cryptocurrency exchange known as Yapizon (before

they changed its name to Youbit) was hacked. Hackers managed to

steal $5 million worth of Bitcoin.

• In August 2016, a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex

was hacked. Hackers made off with about 120,000 BTC.

• In May 2016, the first regulated cryptocurrency GateCoin was hacked.

Hackers managed to gain access to user wallets and stole cryptocur-

rencies (250 BTC and 185,000 ETH) valued at $2 million at the time

of the hack. The exchange never recovered.

• In April 2016, cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift was hacked three

times over the course of 1 month. According to ShapeLift CEO Erik

Voorhees, a former employee was responsible for all three hacks.

ShapeShift was one of the few exchanges that managed to rebuild

themselves successfully and is still in action.

• In February 2015, China-based exchange BTER had its cold wallet

hacked, leading to a loss of over $1.5 million worth of BTC (7,170 BTC).

• In February 2015, a cryptocurrency exchange called KipCoin was

hacked with a loss of 3,000 BTC. The exchange became a victim of

the hosting provider. A hosting server providing hosting to a few cryp-

tocurrency exchanges was hacked and hackers managed to gain con-

trol of the entire platform by changing passwords internally. It took

the exchange 1 month to regain control of the exchange, but hackers

still had some presence within the platform.

• In January 2015, the first regulated cryptocurrency exchange in

Europe called Bitstamp was compromised and lost 19,000 BTC.

Hackers sent a malicious email to Bitstamp employees, and it took

only one employee to follow the link leading to compromising the

whole exchange. The attack cost the exchange about $5.1 million as

per the valuation of BTC at the time of the hack.

• In January 2015, a small incident happened to a cryptocurrency

exchange called LocalBitcoins. The attack only cost the exchange 17

BTC, but it was a lesson for the exchange to spend more money on

their cyber security. Hackers used the LocalBitcoins live chat to dis-

tribute malware.