Top 5 Crypto Heists Ever

Cryptocurrency has grabbed the attention of every investor in recent times. With the exclusive performance of Bitcoin back in 2017, investors became quite sure of its potential growth. And with this, the trust in the Crypto market became stronger over time. But, the problem here is that for anything that starts attracting attention online, cybercriminals try to take the chance as well. Perhaps you can begin buying and selling Bitcoin by visiting bitcode-prime.cloud.

Cybercriminals are getting more interested in getting their hands on this market as the value increases over time. They adopt various methods to execute these crimes, which reflects that we should be careful while dealing with this market. You will learn about the top Cryptocurrency heists ever in this blog.

Types Of Crypto Theft

 This market uses the Blockchain network to verify or record every transaction. You can buy or sell these digital currencies through any trusted Crypto exchange. As these transactions occur in huge amounts and that too anonymously, cybercriminals get a chance to attack the system.

The Cryptocurrency market is full of uncertainty and is prone to cyber-attacks! The exchanges face different kinds of cyber attacks over time. These are –

Phishing

With this tactic, cybercriminals try to access any Cryptocurrency platform by stealing all the login information. Like most of the other systems, they can also access any personal accounts through the login details.

Exchange Hacks

These are some outside hacks that tend to take advantage of other weaknesses in the Cryptocurrency exchanges. A common form of this theft can be misconfiguration vulnerabilities.

Social Engineering

Through this, the frauds will make you believe them and trick them into transferring a large amount of Crypto to their wallets. They create a trap, and investors often tend to fall into such scams!

51% Vulnerabilities

Also known as a majority attack, cybercriminals get access to over 50% hashing power of the Blockchain. In this situation, they get control over the network and can execute reverse transactions or double-spends!

The Biggest Crypto Heists Ever

The Cryptocurrency industry is prone to such cyber attacks and faces similar problems quite often. But, the 5 major thefts that ever took place are –

MT.GOX

This big Cryptocurrency theft took place in January 2014. Back then, it was one of the most successful Crypto exchanges based in Japan. But, in the initial months of that year, this exchange experienced a Crypto heist. In this theft, MT.GOX lost Bitcoin worth around 416 million USD. 

During the investigation, it was revealed that the exchange had poor security systems. Also, it was suspected that the hackers received help from insiders of the platform.

Coincheck

This is considered to be one of the major hacks in any Crypto exchange ever that occurred in January 2018! The employees of this platform had malware-infected laptops, which spread like an infection. There is a high chance that this infection was executed with some phishing emails.

After they got access to the employees’ laptops, it was easier for the hackers to get hands-on private keys to the platform. The estimated loss of this platform from the theft is around 53 million USD. Also, this same platform experienced another data breach back in 2020.

BitGrail

This is an Italian-based Cryptocurrency exchange that faced a Crypto theft in February 2018. In the theft, it lost around 179 million USD, and these theft events are fraud debacles. The owner of this platform was accused of being involved with the theft itself.

After investigating the case, the police stated that it was not clear what the owner’s stand on this theft was. The authorities are unsure whether he was supporting the theft or ignoring strict security measures.

KuCoin

The total amount lost during the heist of 2020 by this platform is around 281 million USD. But, it recovered the stolen coins as it froze the digital assets. The owner states that this was the ability of the hackers to steal private keys. Also, an insider is believed to have helped the group of hackers.

Poly Network

This is the most recent heist that took place last year. Also, this is not a network but a DeFi protocol instead. Due to poor management of the access rights present between smart contracts, this heist was possible. Though the stolen amount was 611 million USD, the entire amount was returned!

Conclusion

As the market has an intrinsic value, cybercriminals are attracted to steal from the similar. The exchanges must have strict security measures and other systems to protect the platform.