Update: BTC-e is back online. The website is up and running and the exchange’s Twitter feed confirmed the news.
Following a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that targeted its server yesterday, European bitcoin exchange operator BTC-e continues to be offline.
Bitcoin and alt.coins exchange BTC-e was knocked offline for several erratic hours yesterday. Users took to social media to speculate the reasons for the cause of the attacks with some stating that BTC-e was hacked, rather than being the target of a DDoS attack.
In providing some clarity with the situation, the exchange’s Twitter account revealed:
Furthermore, concerns raised from whispers of a hack seem to be unfounded with no real evidence to confirm a hack. For its part, BTC-e has updated its Twitter feed to briefly touch on the goings-on and revealed a ‘hardware error’ as the reason for the website being offline.
The above tweet was posted less than an hour of publishing. The current downtime comes at a time when Bitcoin price touched and scaled beyond $450 for the first time in 2016. The Bitstamp Price Index struck a new year-high of $463.41 at 01:32 AM UCT today.
The incident joins others in a recent surge in DDoS extortionists targeting bitcoin exchanges. Chinese exchange BTCC recently bore the brunt of a DDoS attack but refused to cave in to the extortionist’s ransom demands.
A representative for BTC-e wasn’t immediately available for a comment at the time of publishing.
CCN.com readers and BTC-e users, were you able to withdraw your BTC/LTC from BTC-e during or after the DDoS incident yesterday? Are you able to transact or withdraw today? Let us know in the comments below.
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Samburaj is Editor of CCN.com, one of the earliest and foremost publications covering blockchain, and financial technology news. Now focusing on Markets, Showbiz, Sports, and Gaming. He has authored over 2,000 articles for CCN.com. Reach him at [email protected]. Visit his LinkedIn profile here.
