I'm on the forum very young, but I want to move forward. So I decided to search for the material and write my first article on the forum. I ask you not to judge strictly. Since the development of the crypto-market, not often, but still many times and not two crimes related to crypto-currencies have become a key topic for the media. Below, we will examine the loudest and brightest criminal events around crypto-currencies, which shocked the public and became black spots in the chronicles of the development of the crypto industry:
1.The bankruptcy of the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mt. Gox
At the end of 2013, at the height of popularity, the bitcoin rate could reach $ 1,147, but in January 2015, bitcoin could be purchased for $ 210. One of the reasons for such a rapid collapse in 2014 was the scandal on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mt. Gox. In August 2013, the exchange performed about 47% of all transactions in the Bitcoin system, and in January 2014 it was in third place in terms of trading volume on the market. But the unexpected happened at the clients of the stock exchanges were missing from 750 000 to 850 000 Bitcoin - from $ 450 to $ 473 million.
In the end, first Mt. Gox simply suspended the auction, as a result of which serious problems began to arise at the exchange with the withdrawal of the funds, and then ceased its work altogether, and in March and April 15, 2014 that year officially declared its bankruptcy. After that bitkoin all in a month has fallen in price three times.
It is still not known exactly why this happened. Initially, it was about fraudulent schemes of the exchange management and errors in management. But in 2015 there was information that Mt Gox from 2011 was regularly attacked by hackers, as a result of which, and were stolen bitcoins. 200,000 bitcoins managed to be returned, the former director of Mt. Gox Mark Karpales, served 10 months in prison and was released on bail ...
2.The case of the drug dealer Ross William Ulbricht, the "Silk Road"
In 2011, a physicist by training, 29-year-old Ross William Ulbricht, registered the Internet community Silk Road in the anonymous Tor network, which also became one of the largest electronic platform for drug trafficking in the world. According to law-protectors in the windows of Silk Road for bitcoins, it was possible to order about 320 kinds of various drugs and psychotropic substances. During its existence, the site managed to service about a million customers, and the turnover of banned substances exceeded $ 200 million dollars. Virtually all transactions for their payment occurred in bitcoins.
It is interesting that the staff of the site provided support to its customers at the highest level - up to instructions on packaging the goods. Moreover, on the site it was possible to order a hired killer service and any forged documents.
But already in October 2013, the FBI closed the Silk Road and arrested 144,000 bitcoins, which at that time was about $ 100 million. In total, the turnover of the site for the entire period of work (from 2011 to 2013) was 174,000 bitcoins.
In the winter of 2015, Ross Ulbricht, was accused by the US government of a number of articles, including hacking, drug trafficking, money laundering ... The poor fellow was sentenced to life imprisonment.
The case of Ross, as well as possible, conveys that tense atmosphere that arises out of the law and the rule of law that exists in the "Dark Web", unpredictable and anonymous.
Alex Winter's documentary Deep Web reveals the political consequences of Ross Ulbricht's case, the growth in the number of anonymous communities, and the government's methods to hold people accountable for the actions on the Internet. The film is investigating the emergence of a new global network: encrypted, illegal, dangerous ...
3.Hacker attack on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange Bitfinex
Theft of 119,756 BTC (about $ 65 million at the current rate) was held in 2016 at the Bitfinex exchange in Hong Kong - the world's largest stock exchange, where bitcoin traded with the dollar. Immediately on the exchange were frozen user accounts for input and output, as well as suspended work with bitcoins. Before the report of embezzlement bitcoin was trading at $ 604, but after the news, the rate began to fall sharply and the next day bitcoin fell 20%, to $ 480 but then partially played a fall.
The exchange said: "We reported the theft to law enforcement agencies and cooperate with them. We are very concerned about this and we are directing all resources to solve the problem. "
It is worth noting that in 2015 Bitfinex launched a new protection system, which was based on multiple signatures. Customers' funds were kept in separate purses, not in the general account.
Bitfinex was founded in 2012 in Hong Kong, had offices in Europe and the US, and before being hacked, it was one of the world's leading trading floors with the maximum trading volume in the BTC / USD pair. Interestingly, a week before the attack on Bitfinex, the Ethereum Classic (ETC) crypto currency was added and margin trading in ETC / USD and ETC / BTC pairs was launched.
4.THE DEPARTMENT OF THE ETHEREUM IN JULY 2017
One sunny summer day the second most popular currency took and collapsed from the crypto-Olympus. There was an incredible: the ethereum went to the bottom under the weight of its own demand.
We tell how it was. The ICO placement campaign, conducted by the Singapore startup Status, attracted an unprecedented number of buyers. 270 million dollars in a few hours, Carl! And popularity gained the opposite effect. And instant. The unhappy etherium rolled lower and lower, driven by love to a dedicated audience. On some exchanges, the collapse of the Etherium was simply huge - about 96%, from $ 300 to $ 10. Whether it is necessary to speak about the general scale of losses.
Since then, of course, the ether has managed to recover its losses, and even with interest, but who can guarantee that this will not happen again?
5.FALSE CRYPTOMONETS
While there is money in any form - paper, digital, edible, imaginary, there are those who forged them. It would seem that nothing new, but, you see, a false crypto-currency is an extraordinary phenomenon.
On September 22, 2017, the Swiss authorities stopped the activities of the company "Quid pro quo", which distributed fake crypto money. About a year, the pseudo-idol, called E-Coin, acted freely and quietly robbed users, summing up an aggregate amount of more than $ 4.2 million. The forgery aroused suspicions in the Office of Supervision of Financial Market Operations in Switzerland (FINMA). After the verification it was found out that E-Coin was not stored in distributed lock-up networks, but on the servers itself "Quid pro quo". The counterfeiters were exposed and punished.
6.CHINA PROHIBITS CRYPTUALS
News, which caused a lot of resonance in the world cryptus.
Remember, as on September 4, 2017, the People's Bank of China introduced a ban on funding through the ICO and ordered to return all funds received to users? So, already on September 20, the activity of crypto-exchange exchanges was declared illegal. All data about users were subject to transfer to the authorities.
So far, we can only sympathize with our Chinese colleagues and make assumptions about the further totalitarian sophistication of the PRC authorities. A complete ban is possible (which risks reaching the opposite goal, attracting the attractiveness of the forbidden fruit) or simply full control of crypto products marked "made in China".
7.Hacking NiceHash
Some well-known companies have suffered from the attacks. So, in early December, the site for selling computing power for mining NiceHash reported a hack. After a while, she confirmed that 4700 bitcoins had been stolen. Their value at that time was estimated at 78 million dollars.
Later it turned out that hackers hacked the computer of one of the employees, got access to the trading system and stole bitcoins from the company's accounts. NiceHash CEO Marco Kobal said his team is trying to determine exactly how the hack happened, but it will take some time.
At the moment, none of the criminals from this list was caught or identified. It is unlikely that the stolen money will ever be returned to the owners.
