Posted on December 8, 2017 at 3:49 PM

Hackers Steal Millions Worth of Bitcoin In Wallet Hack

Hackers targeted the cryptocurrency wallet provider, NiceHash which caused its subsequent shutdown earlier this week.

The cryptocurrency-related firm, NiceHash recently fell victim to a major hack which essentially emptied out the contents of the company’s cryptocurrency wallet. In addition to their own holdings, the wallet contained millions worth of NiceHash users’ Bitcoin.

The security breach occurred earlier this week on Wednesday morning.

The company stated via its Facebook page that the hack impacted their payment system and that the entire content of the firm’s wallet had been pocketed by the hackers.

In their Facebook post, NiceHash stated that the security breach is a cause of great concern for the company and that they are working in the hopes of rectifying the matter. The company confirmed that in addition to their own internal security audit and investigation, they have notified the relevant law enforcement authorities and will be collaborating with them to address the matter.

So far, NiceHash has not responded to a request for comment.

The company did not confirm the exact amount stolen, or which portion of the wallet belongs to its users. However, NiceHash users have reported that the amount stolen is likely to be in the region of roughly 4 736 Bitcoin, which currently translates to over $63 million.

This number is based on the estimated total amount that was confirmed to have been recently available in the company’s wallet. Some NiceHash users suggested that some of the funds might have belonged to the hacker. Generally Bitcoin owners enjoy some anonymity, however, their wallet holdings can be searched via a public database available online.

A large portion of the stolen funds is thought to belong to Bitcoin miners.

NiceHash provides a mining service to the crypto community. It provides users to use surplus computer processing power in order to mine new Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

Afterwards, users can exchange their newly mined altcoins for Bitcoin. NiceHash also provides a marketplace service wherein users can buy and sell computer processing power from each other in order to mine cryptocurrency.

The majority of NiceHash users generally move their earnings from the NiceHash wallet to their own personal wallets or make them available to trade on crypto exchanges. However, several users choose to keep their earnings on the platform.

The platform was rumored to have fallen victim to hacking early Wednesday morning after the site announced that they shut down due to maintenance. Several NiceHash users took to Reddit and confirmed that they suddenly lost connection to the site while using it. Other users reported that their total earnings decreased to zero in this time.

NiceHash is just one of several cryptocurrency sites to have suffered a hack in the last few months. Cryptocurrencies and its underlying blockchain technology have been touted as being the safer alternative compared to traditional finance solutions. However, despite this, dedicated hackers still managed to cause high-profile security breaches which lost the targeted companies and its users millions worth of cryptocurrency.

Last month, the crypto wallet service provider, Parity, fell victim to an unintended hack which lost its users over $162 million worth of ether. According to reports, a new user locked users out of their accounts after accidentally deleting a vital piece of code needed for users to be able to access the funds in their Parity wallets.