Bitstamp lost $5 million in Bitcoins in a recent cyberattack

Bitstamp, a popular Bitcoin exchange, has gone offline after announcing that it recently suffered a cyberattack that resulted in the loss of more than $5 million of the the digital currency. Customers have been warned to take care when accessing their wallets and the value of the company’s shares have plummeted. Even so, Bitstamp remains confident that, once it repairs the damage done, things will return to normal. 

Bitcoin exchange Bitstamp has been taken offline after a hack attack relieved its coffers of $5 million. A message on the Bitstamp homepage explains that some of the exchange’s operational wallets had been compromised, and warned customer to stop making deposits to previously-used addresses. The attack took place over the week, but details are only now starting to come to light. Although more than 19,000 BTC ($5.2 million) were “lost” as a result of this, Bitstamp assures its customers that any Bitcoins stored up to January 5 are safe, but says that service is suspended for the time being. As news of the security breach crept out, the value of Bitstamp shares dropped sharply, but the exchange remains hopeful that operations will be back up and running in a few days. Bitstamp co-founder Nejc Kodrič took to Twitter in an attempt to reassure investors that their Bitcoins are safe: “To restate: the bulk of our bitcoin are in cold storage, and remain completely safe.”