Wall Observer BTC/USD - Bitcoin price movement tracking & discussion

[BlindMayorBitcorn]

Hey guys, bitstamp got haxxed, did you hear?!?!  

Are you sure it wasnt a Goxx-ed, i.e. inside job ... the ceo and his cto buddy probably just smoking it all off as we speak on booze and pot and babes...

Wasn't the current head of Bitstamp until recently working for the SEC? If this happened at BTC-e I would be worried

[pjviitas]

If this happened in the real world it would be serious but its a Bitcoin Exchange so everyone just sits tight like its normal.

[relm9]

I really doubt Stamp has to resort to market buys to get that BTC. They probably can buy it in bulk from one of their partners. 19K is a lot, but not a crazy amount either.

[findftp]

I really doubt Stamp has to resort to market buys to get that BTC. They probably can buy it in bulk from one of their partners. 19K is a lot, but not a crazy amount either.

I really wonder why you would put 19k in a hot wallet. Even when you have to transfer them to clients.
19k live ammo is a bit high.


I would have kept much better safety with those coins.

[Fatman3001]

If this happened in the real world it would be serious but its a Bitcoin Exchange so everyone just sits tight like its normal.

It is normal. Heck! It's a bloody tradition by now.

[ChartBuddy]

Explanation

[celebreze32]

Hey guys, bitstamp got haxxed, did you hear?!?!  

Are you sure it wasnt a Goxx-ed, i.e. inside job ... the ceo and his cto buddy probably just smoking it all off as we speak on booze and pot and babes...

Wasn't the current head of Bitstamp until recently working for the SEC? If this happened at BTC-e I would be worried

Probably.

PayPal chief compliance officer (CCO) Jean-Baptiste Graftieaux left his job there to join Bitstamp.

http://www.coindesk.com/paypal-bitstamp-chief-compliance-officer/

That article also says Bitstamp got $10m investment from Pantera Capital in 2013. That alone's enough to cover a $5m loss.

[diabLEEca]

theres not even 18k bitcoins on the markets to buy, bitstram will fall same like gox

Lol you idiot, you can't even translate a cheap pun from Polish to English. I assume you originally meant bitsramp which in Polish bears a strong connotation with the physical action of "shitting". I dare say even a five-year-old would figure out it would be easiest to translate it as "shitstamp" which would have the same effect on the target language reader.
Could someone please ban this miserable troll? Ignore is not enough for his kind (and I haven't even ignored Lambchop or ponzi - could you please, please make him go?).

[relm9]

I really doubt Stamp has to resort to market buys to get that BTC. They probably can buy it in bulk from one of their partners. 19K is a lot, but not a crazy amount either.

I really wonder why you would put 19k in a hot wallet. Even when you have to transfer them to clients.
19k live ammo is a bit high.


I would have kept much better safety with those coins.

Yeah, agreed - no idea why they kept 19K in a hot wallet.

[BlindMayorBitcorn]

I really doubt Stamp has to resort to market buys to get that BTC. They probably can buy it in bulk from one of their partners. 19K is a lot, but not a crazy amount either.

True. I thought about this after I said it. They could probably just buy from a mine or a private seller

[tarmi]

they dont need to buy anything, they got more than enough in cold storage to honour all missing coins.

[Stevenirving]

I really doubt Stamp has to resort to market buys to get that BTC. They probably can buy it in bulk from one of their partners. 19K is a lot, but not a crazy amount either.

I really wonder why you would put 19k in a hot wallet. Even when you have to transfer them to clients.
19k live ammo is a bit high.
I would have kept much better safety with those coins.

Yeah, agreed - no idea why they kept 19K in a hot wallet.

This is good stuff:

What follows is a Bitstamp Hot Wallet from taint analysis

This is guesstimated, from blockchain analysis only, so take it with a shovel of salt and a critical eye.
It's at best an under-estimation, as the taint will naturally not affect all change addresses and other things, though from experience on altcoins, it's not usually complete bollocks either

Hot Wallet guesstimated Balance
day                  received         spent         balance
01/01/2015      1,657.5         934.9         1,842.3
02/01/2015      2,778.2        2,553.8       2,066.7
03/01/2015      9,592.7        9,033.8       2,625.7
04/01/2015     18,614.2     21,122.9        117.1
05/01/2015      1,223.1     1,338.7         1.5



So apparently something happened on the 4th, either big external deposit(s) followed by larger withdrawal(s), or something that triggered a refill from a cold storage.

The hot wallet was then promptly cleared, with the high fee transactions that have been reported, though it's anyone's guess at this point if it was Bitstamp clearing it in panic mode, or a thief.

And below is recent guesstimated hot wallet history, the big bumps are (AFAICT) deposits from the large cold storage they created during their audit, so they're very likely artifacts more than real deposits. Those deposits were eventually compensated by withdrawals to likely cold storage addresses.

It shows Bitstamp aimed to keep between 500 and 2000 BTC in their hot wallet, so the hack occurring just after or during a "bump" to 20k BTC is suspicious.

[aminorex]

You would have a hard time buying 19k btc from a contract supplier at these prices.  Contracts were all negotiated at higher prices originally.  Why would they sell to you anyhow, knowing as they do that the price must go up? Probably they end up buying back the coins at least 10% higher than the price the thief got for them.  I think a lot of supply is going to get pulled from the market now.

[celebreze32]

I really doubt Stamp has to resort to market buys to get that BTC. They probably can buy it in bulk from one of their partners. 19K is a lot, but not a crazy amount either.

True. I thought about this after I said it. They could probably just buy from a mine or a private seller

Bitstamp used to do business directly with Bitfinex.

This article says Bitfinex used to include the Bitstamp order book in their own order book for liquidity purposes. In other words, they were arbitraging between themselves and Bitstamp.

http://bitcoinvista.com/2014/06/12/the-bitcoin-trading-platform-bitfinex-is-distancing-themselves-from-bitstamp/

Thinking about it Bitstamp could probably do a deal directly with Bitfinex or other companies they have connections to.

[BlindMayorBitcorn]

I really doubt Stamp has to resort to market buys to get that BTC. They probably can buy it in bulk from one of their partners. 19K is a lot, but not a crazy amount either.

True. I thought about this after I said it. They could probably just buy from a mine or a private seller

Bitstamp used to do business directly with Bitfinex.

This article says Bitfinex used to include the Bitstamp order book in their own order book for liquidity purposes. In other words, they were arbitraging between themselves and Bitstamp.

http://bitcoinvista.com/2014/06/12/the-bitcoin-trading-platform-bitfinex-is-distancing-themselves-from-bitstamp/

Thinking about it Bitstamp could probably do a deal directly with Bitfinex or other companies they have connections to.

They could just call this guy:

[pjviitas]

As every hour ticks by more and more bad shit seems to be creeping into this story.

Question is...what's the collateral damage going to look like?

[janos666]

I really doubt Stamp has to resort to market buys to get that BTC. They probably can buy it in bulk from one of their partners. 19K is a lot, but not a crazy amount either.

True. I thought about this after I said it. They could probably just buy from a mine or a private seller

Bitstamp used to do business directly with Bitfinex.

This article says Bitfinex used to include the Bitstamp order book in their own order book for liquidity purposes. In other words, they were arbitraging between themselves and Bitstamp.

http://bitcoinvista.com/2014/06/12/the-bitcoin-trading-platform-bitfinex-is-distancing-themselves-from-bitstamp/

Thinking about it Bitstamp could probably do a deal directly with Bitfinex or other companies they have connections to.

They could just call this guy:

Or wait for the next USMS auction...

[BlindMayorBitcorn]

I really doubt Stamp has to resort to market buys to get that BTC. They probably can buy it in bulk from one of their partners. 19K is a lot, but not a crazy amount either.

True. I thought about this after I said it. They could probably just buy from a mine or a private seller

Bitstamp used to do business directly with Bitfinex.

This article says Bitfinex used to include the Bitstamp order book in their own order book for liquidity purposes. In other words, they were arbitraging between themselves and Bitstamp.

http://bitcoinvista.com/2014/06/12/the-bitcoin-trading-platform-bitfinex-is-distancing-themselves-from-bitstamp/

Thinking about it Bitstamp could probably do a deal directly with Bitfinex or other companies they have connections to.

They could just call this guy:

Or wait for the next USMS auction...

Or that. How many are still left?

[celebreze32]

As every hour ticks by more and more bad shit seems to be creeping into this story.

Question is...what's the collateral damage going to look like?

There's a new statement from Bitstamp here.

https://www.bitstamp.net/

"An important message to our customers:

January 6, 2015, 12:34am UTC: We have temporarily suspended Bitstamp services. Bitstamp customers can rest assured that their bitcoins held with us prior to temporary suspension of services on January 5th (at 9am UTC) are completely safe and will be honored in full.

On January 4th, some of Bitstamp’s operational wallets were compromised, resulting in a loss of less than 19,000 BTC. Upon learning of the breach, we immediately notified all customers that they should no longer make deposits to previously issued bitcoin deposit addresses. To repeat, customers should NOT make any deposits to previously issued bitcoin deposit addresses. As an additional security measure, we suspended our systems while we fully investigate the incident and actively engage with law enforcement officials.

This breach represents a small fraction of Bitstamp’s total bitcoin reserves, the overwhelming majority of which are held in secure offline cold storage systems. We would like to reassure all Bitstamp customers that their balances held prior to our temporary suspension of services will not be affected and will be honored in full.

We appreciate customers’ patience during this disruption of services. We are working to transfer a secure backup of the Bitstamp site onto a new safe environment and will be bringing this online in the coming days. Customers can stay informed via updates on our website, on Twitter (@Bitstamp) and through Bitstamp customer support at support@bitstamp.net.

- Bitstamp Team "

[BlindMayorBitcorn]

As every hour ticks by more and more bad shit seems to be creeping into this story.

Question is...what's the collateral damage going to look like?

There's a new statement from Bitstamp here.

https://www.bitstamp.net/

"An important message to our customers:

January 6, 2015, 12:34am UTC: We have temporarily suspended Bitstamp services. Bitstamp customers can rest assured that their bitcoins held with us prior to temporary suspension of services on January 5th (at 9am UTC) are completely safe and will be honored in full.

On January 4th, some of Bitstamp’s operational wallets were compromised, resulting in a loss of less than 19,000 BTC. Upon learning of the breach, we immediately notified all customers that they should no longer make deposits to previously issued bitcoin deposit addresses. To repeat, customers should NOT make any deposits to previously issued bitcoin deposit addresses. As an additional security measure, we suspended our systems while we fully investigate the incident and actively engage with law enforcement officials.

This breach represents a small fraction of Bitstamp’s total bitcoin reserves, the overwhelming majority of which are held in secure offline cold storage systems. We would like to reassure all Bitstamp customers that their balances held prior to our temporary suspension of services will not be affected and will be honored in full.

We appreciate customers’ patience during this disruption of services. We are working to transfer a secure backup of the Bitstamp site onto a new safe environment and will be bringing this online in the coming days. Customers can stay informed via updates on our website, on Twitter (@Bitstamp) and through Bitstamp customer support at support@bitstamp.net.

- Bitstamp Team "

So they got pleny enough to go around. But the hacker still has 19,000 coins