Update: EUR trading is back as well.
Last week, Poland’s largest bitcoin exchange, Bitcurex, halted all trades to investigate a hacking attack. A malicious user attempted to obtain 19,000 BTC from the exchange with a fraudulent buy order. However, the site was shut down within 5 minutes of the buy order, and Bitcurex offered the following statement soon afterwards:
Dear Users,
We successfully blocked a hacking attack on Bitcurex, preventing mass theft of BTC funds of our users. Thanks to automatic safety procedures, hackers managed to defraud only a portion of the funds stored in operational Hot Wallet Bitcurex. The majority of funds from Hot Wallet, as well the entirety of funds from Cold Wallet and FIAT monetary funds remained intact.
Our team located and removed the source of the problem. We are working on resuming normal service, at the same time an external audit is being conducted: we will soon provide the exact date of resuming all Bitcurex functionalities. More information will be provided in further statements.
We are sorry for the inconvenience, and most of all we thank the whole BTC community for the support we received: we were put to a test that will make us stronger.
Best regards,
Bitcurex Team
Furthermore, Bitcurex promised to begin resuming operations on Tuesday, 18 March.
We inform that Bitcurex PLN will be resumed tomorrow, on March 18 at 12:00. Bitcurex EUR will be resumed on thursday on March 20, also at 12:00.
It looks like the team at Bitcurex were true to their word, because the exchange has restored PLN (Polish Zloty) operations . Furthermore, Bitcurex will fund hot wallet losses with their own money. In addition, all passwords have been reset, so any user attempting to log in should use the password recovery function on the site. While prices took a hit after the exchange went back online, they seem to be steadily recovering.
It should come as great news to everyone that Bitcurex was able to successfully and professionally thwart a hacking attempt and resume operations in a timely manner. Unlike Mt. Gox, Bitcurex knows how to handle a potential crisis.
Additional information and updates are available on the Bitcurex website and Facebook page . This post will also be updated with any major news regarding today’s announcement.
