There is no doubt that cryptocurrency is much safer as compared to the fiat currency. You won’t be cornered in a dark alley to hand over your private key to your Coinbase wallet. But it isn’t as secure as you might think.
Despite being taper resistant, it is still susceptible to online hacks and other attacks. Here are’s a few examples of insane top cryptocurrency heists that you need to know about.
Kim Possible
Joseph Kim, a trader working at Consolidated Trading LLC in Chicago was motivated by taking back what he thought was his right. Not all cryptos robberies involve hacking, sometimes it is as gaining a trustful position. Kim was able to funnel around $2 million worth of the firm’s Bitcoin and Litecoin from the company coffers into his own.
The beans were spilled on November 2017. He faced trial in the court on February 2018, where he was officially charged with wire fraud. He even made history by being the first person to be charged over a cryptocurrency matter. Not the smartest way to end up in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Iceland’s great crypto mining heists
We all know crypto is the most popular place for mining servers. Mining rigs generate a lot of heat so cold locations are ideal storage place. Unfortunately, these far-flung locations aren’t ideal when it results in a number of rigs going missing. In just two months, there were four break-ins in isolated regions. And not a few but 600 of these specialized computers were stolen and vanished into thin air. The mining rigs couldn’t be recovered by 11 arrests have been made.
The DAO Hack
Back in the days, developments of cryptocurrency were soaring. One of the large-scale decentralized autonomous organizations had been created through the application of smart contracts. It was built on Ethereum and it got quite popular at the launch, generating some $150 million worth of investment action.
Unluckily, the flaws in the smart contract left a few gates open for hackers to squeeze their way in. The hackers scooped around $50 million of cryptocurrency invested in The DAO.
The incident leads to one of the famous hard forks and caused a split; creating Ethereum and Ethereum Classic.
The Japanese Hack
As the title suggests, it happened in Japan. The digital exchange known as Coincheck’s Tokyo-based servers were hacked in the morning hours of January 2018. The results were catastrophic. $534 million worth of cryptocurrency was transferred to god knows where.
The Mt. Gox Bitcoin Robbery
This is one of the biggest cryptocurrency robberies of all time (till Coincheck took the stage). The heists occurred in 2014 and the haul was 850,000 Bitcoins, worth close to $450,00 at the time. Though some of the Bitcoins were recovered. However, 650,000 still remain missing. Mr. Gox was charged with a litany of his crimes by the Japanese government. Meanwhile, the perpetrators roam free.
