The Bahrain-based crypto exchange Altsbit, announced that it would shut down its services in May of this year. The exchange suffered a major security breach on 6th February, which caused the exchange to lose almost all of the funds stored in hot wallets. The exchange has promised to reimburse customers to the best of their ability.
Hackers managed to steal almost all of the funds from the exchange’s hot wallet.
According to the exchange, hackers managed to gain access to the trading platform’s hot wallets overnight to steal “almost all” of the funds it had on 6th February. The exchange promised that it would reimburse the victims of the breach using its funds to the best of its ability. Altsbit further noted that affected users must apply to receive their partial refunds.
Dear users,
Unfortunately we have to notify you with the fact that our exchange was hacked during the night and almost all funds from BTC, ETH, ARRR and VRSC were stolen.
A small part of the funds are safe on cold wallets.— Altsbit (@altsbit) February 6, 2020
Altsbit lost nearly 7,000 bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies.
The cryptocurrency exchange Altsbit announced that it would be issuing refunds from 8th February to 10th May before it completely shuts down its services. According to the exchange, 6,929 bitcoins out of 14,782 were lost during the hack and 23,21 ETH out of 32,262. Altsbit also warned that users should be wary of those pretending to be Altsbit employees promising refunds on social media websites. A Twitter account by the name “The Lulz Boat” seems to have taken responsibility for the hack. It also warned other crypto exchanges with weak securities that they are coming after them.
We assure that @altsbit didn't had proper security to stop Lulz Canon. Many others to follow. Better Stack up the Security – Note to other Exchanges #ForTheLulz
— The Lulz Boat (@LulzSec) February 8, 2020