Bitcoin exchange Bitstamp expects to resume trading within 24 hours after Sunday security breach
Bitstamp, one of the largest exchanges for the digital bitcoin currency, announced it expected to resume trading within 24 hours after suspending operations because of a security breach occurred on Sunday.
The breach resulted in the loss of around 19,000 bitcoins with a value of some $5 million. However, Damijan Merlak, one of Bitstamp's two Slovenian founders, said customers would not lose money because of the breach and security would be increased.
"Trading will resume as soon as the new infrastructure will be in place and tested. We expect that is likely to happen within the next 24 hours," Merlak told Reuters in an emailed message on Wednesday.
"In the future we will strengthen security measures while the most important thing for clients is that they will suffer no financial damage as that will be covered by our company," Merlak added.
After one of the world's largest bitcoin exchanges, Mt. Gox, lost an estimated $650 million worth of the virtual currency when its computer system was hacked, Bitstamp claimed that developers had come up with a solution to thwart cyber attacks against its platform.
The Slovenia-based firm posted on its website on Tuesday that the breach represented a small fraction of its total bitcoin reserve and the majority was held in secure offline systems.
The exchange had said it believed one of its wallets, which store the digital credentials for a customer's bitcoin holdings, had been compromised. It had notified all customers after learning of the breach, requesting them not to make any deposits to previously issued bitcoin deposit addresses.
Bitcoin, the best-known virtual currency, started circulating in 2009. Unlike conventional money, bitcoin is generated by computers and is independent of control or backing by any government.
A bitcoin is currently worth $276.80.
