Bitcoin exchange Bitfinex reports $65 million has been stolen from its users

Bitcoin exchange platform Bitfinex is reporting the theft of what some users are saying is as much as 119,756btc — or about $65 million in cash.

A Reddit user under the handle of ‘zanetackett’ is ‘confirming’ the loss at 119,756btc. A LinkedIn profile for a Zane Tackett has him working at Bitfinex as a Director of Community & Product Development, so it’s likely safe to assume his Reddit account is simply his name, and the information is authentic.

On its website, Bitfinex noted the following:

Today we discovered a security breach that requires us to halt all trading on Bitfinex, as well as halt all digital token deposits to and withdrawals from Bitfinex.

We are investigating the breach to determine what happened, but we know that some of our users have had their bitcoins stolen. We are undertaking a review to determine which users have been affected by the breach. While we conduct this initial investigation and secure our environment, bitfinex.com will be taken down and the maintenance page will be left up.

The theft is being reported to — and we are co-operating with — law enforcement.

Tackett is very responsive on Reddit, but noted Bitfinex didn’t use any type of cold storage for Bitcoins, essentially leaving it up to individual Wallet holders to secure their own funds:

It’s entirely possible this is what led to Bitfinex being targeted, but it’s still very early in the investigation. Tackett went on to say that there’s likely nothing users could have done to prevent the breach, noting “it does look like it’s on us.”

Edit: We’ve updated this article to reflect a more accurate dollar amount for the stolen Bitcoins.

Thanks, Mike!