One of the issues that has consistently surrounded the cryptocurrency markets is the idea of security. While other individuals can invest securely in stocks, for example, without having to have a constant fear of their funds being lost – the same cannot always be said for cryptocurrency investors and traders. In 2018, over $1 billion was stolen in cryptocurrency, for example.
It appears as though those issues are continuing, as cryptocurrency exchange Cryptopia has now gone offline thanks to a security breach. The New Zealand-based exchange addressed the issue on Twitter, and many are speculating about it.
About The Exchange
80382717 – bit coin chart world networkCryptopia was originally a mining pool, but eventually transitioned into a cryptocurrency exchange. It does have a certain status among cryptocurrency exchanges, considering that it has been around since 2014, before many other exchanges existed or thrived. It eventually gained a user base of over 1 million users over the course of several years.
One of the reasons that many use Cryptopia in particular is the fact that it has so many trading pairs. Others also believe that it offers some great “micro cap” cryptocurrencies, that might offer more growth potential than other projects.
About The Incident
The exchange has made updates on Twitter regularly, and since January 10, has been describing particular issues. First, on January 10, the exchange tweeted that their Bitcoin (BTC) wallet had maintenance issues that would affect users. The exchange then continued to tweet about “unscheduled maintenance”. You can see the tweets below:
The BTC wallet is currently in maintenance and users aren’t able to withdraw or deposit. Our team is working on it and we will have an update for you within the next 4 hours (12.30pm NZST). Thank you for your patience and please keep an eye on our social channels for updates.
— Cryptopia Exchange (@Cryptopia_NZ) January 10, 2019
Update: Our BTC Wallet is now back to normal.
Thank you everyone for your patience.— Cryptopia Exchange (@Cryptopia_NZ) January 10, 2019
We are currently experiencing an unscheduled maintenance, we are working to resume services as soon as possible. We will keep you updated.
— Cryptopia Exchange (@Cryptopia_NZ) January 14, 2019
Update: We are still experiencing unscheduled maintenance. The next update will be at 8am NZDT (7pm UTC)
— Cryptopia Exchange (@Cryptopia_NZ) January 14, 2019
The exchange then finally tweeted about the security breach, stating that they had contacted the authorities regarding the hack. Many have grown suspicious about the hack, specifically because a significant amount of money seems to have been moved before Cryptopia went offline. This marks the first major cryptocurrency hack of 2019.
