Bitcoin Forum

Bitfinex has announced that it has redeemed all of the BFX tokens issued after the crippling hack last summer that removed almost 120.000 Bitcoins from customer’s wallets. In August 2016, the Hong Kong based exchange was hit by a massive hack, stripping customer’s accounts of 119,756 Bitcoins, or around 70 million dollars. The attack on the leading Bitcoin exchange shook the whole market, with Bitcoin prices dropping within hours.

The exchange decided to distribute losses among all users, with a general loss percentage of 36%. BFX tokens were created after the hack, with an obligation to return the 36% of lost funds to all customers.

The full article here: https://coinidol.com/bitfinex-reimburses-hacked-customers-in-full/

Well, there would be some customers who sold their Bitfinex tokens, because they needed money urgently. They will still be unhappy with Bitfinex. This is a good move, but things cannot go back to normal.

Wow! Goes to show you the amount of money these guys are making, profit wise. Good for them for keeping their word! I have more respect than ever for them after overcoming that catastrophe.

You wouldn't be likely to say that if you were one of the customers, who had no choice in the matter but to take the 36% instant loss. For such a major business, they should have taken some sort of insurance or protection for their customers just like any other major business.

Nevertheless, all those token buyers will be very happy to have made tidy profits with the reimbursements.

So lets recap --- RipOffinex used customer money for their legal fund, then issued tokens that caused an immediate 36% haircut.

Most people took the loss, and moved on.

Now, after some time - users trading with BFX produced fee income for the exchange which they used to pay off their cheated customers.

So, this isn't some magnanimous gesture on BFX's part - they pushed the "hit" on the customer, and then used customer-generated fees to pay back everyone else. Even then, there are still big losers that will never be compensated.

These people are crooks, and anyone trading with BFX deserves every future "hack" they get. Believe me, this won't be the only incident, especially since they got away with it.

What would happen if some of the customers sued Bitfinex? Bitfinex should be offering some kind of compensation  to customers, not just returning their money.

People should have been compensated in coin quantity and not USD value equivalent. Bitcoin right now has more or less doubled in value, and thus these people are basically screwed while their problem at the same time is "solved" by Bitfinex. If I was a trader there with a huge load of coins, and I got compensated only in USD equivalent, which is exactly the case with all victims, then I would definitely put everything to work to sue them.

Which would have reduced their losses from 36% down onto half of that, since these tokens where traded at a half dollar level for some while.
The trouble lures if Bitfinex could get hacked again. And again. Are they secure at all?

Precisely. Whether with fiat or with crypto, some huge corporation is either careless or deliberately dishonest, and its users/customers have no choice but to swallow whatever story they're told, take the losses on their chin and move on. Sure, BFX has now reimbursed in full, but what about compensation for loss of income?

That was a LOT of crypto that people could have used to make more. Who's to say BFX didn't use it and made tidy profits before returning the "loan" interest free? You can be certain if a customer loses a business money, the customer has to compensate.

It surprises me that after browsing through various related Bitfinex threads, that there are barely any people questioning and doubting their actions, and the overall trustworthiness of this exchange. It's like everything they did doesn't matter anymore. I still don't trust this exchange, and rightfully so. However, looking at how they operate with their volumes, it's back to normal. It's again the leading exchange. I remember how furious people were at the beginning, what a shift....

How much does it cost to the Bitfinex in total?