Bitfinex, one of the leading digital currency exchange, today reported that it has faced a security breach. Following the discovery, the exchange reportedly halted all its bitcoin trading operations until further notice.
“Today we discovered a security breach that requires us to halt all trading on Bitfinex, as well as halt all digital token deposits to and withdrawals from Bitfinex”
According to the Bitfinex homepage, the breach was discovered at around 18:00 UTC, same time when the platform suspended operations. The platform is currently consolidating all the activities, accounting for individualized customer losses, settling open margin positions and other collaterals which may have been affected by the breach.
As of now, the company believes that the security breach was limited only to Bitcoin wallets without affecting other cryptocurrency operations. Regarding any settlements, the company states:
“Any settlements will be at the current market prices as of 18:00 UTC.”
Bitfinex has reported the incident to concerned law enforcement authorities, and is expected to work along with them to determine the origin of the breach. Meanwhile, the platform will keep its customers updated on its status page.
“We will post updates as and when appropriate on our status page (Bitfinex.statuspage.io) and on the maintenance page. We are deeply concerned about this issue and we are committing every resource to try to resolve it. We ask for the community’s patience as we unravel the causes and consequences of this breach.”
Bitfinex expects to resume its operations as soon as it completes damage evaluation and implementation of remedial measures.
Ethereum Classic Peaks Following Bitfinex Security Breach
On the positive side, soon after Bitfinex announced the security incident, the price of Ethereum Classic went through the roof. The cryptocurrency based on the original Ethereum blockchain has registered an all-time high since it began trading last week. According to market data, ETC has registered over 48 percent increase in price within hours to trade at $3.24.
The previous peak of ETC was on 26 July when the price hit $2.84, two days after Poloniex became the first exchange to introduce ETC support.
Ref: Bitfinex | Image: CoinMarketCap