Crypto whales hacked, lost $15M BTC and $30M BCH

[alexsandria]

These hacks, now and then, are a major reason the crypto business is still scary. One would think one already had the cryptos secured in a wallet (even with private keys) only to discover upon login that one had been hacked. Nevertheless, if I were the victim of that hack I wouldn't be putting all my BTC in a single wallet. I would split that into (at least) 10 different wallets.

We can't avoid those kind of hacking of bitcoin by the other people but we can be able to lessen this kinds of incidents by splitting our bitcoin and other cryptocurrency in different wallet in order to be more secured and never give the private keys of each wallet so that you are aware that you are the only one who has the access to your wallet and also if you are a crypto whale and which you are holding so much bitcoin and bitcoin cash then probably you must be able to know what to do to avoid or lessen just kind of incidence.

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[joeperry]

First of all, remarks that circulate on the Web are all questionable. If this was really true, it is very alarming especially that the mentioned individual involved in the case is claimed to be a security expert. In this case, it demonstrates that the expertise of this person is also questionable because of the portrayed safety precautions and poorly taken into account and strategized. Web crimes such as hacking can happen all the time but could be avoided through thorough strategizing the safekeeping of cryptocurrency and taking safety measures as high as possible.

[coolcoinz]

Now someone else is going to be that whale or a number of new whales.

It's interesting that if you manage to hold on to a large amount of  BTC you're eventually are going to be in the 0.1% elite of the BTC world because the number of holders will continue to drop. Some will lose their coins by forgetting passwords or some technical problems, some will get hacked, some will get scammed or simply sell because taking profit will be too tempting.

5 years from now when you hear about a whale losing his wallet it's going to be someone with 10 BTC, not 1000, like it is today.

[Vishnu.Reang]

As I can see, SIM Swap was used to conduct this fraud. I have seen in Reddit that a lot of users were blaming the victim, saying that he put too much coins in a single wallet. But I don't really agree with them. Sim swap is not easy to carry out, and rather than the user, the telecom company should take the blame. Here in India, SMS services are deactivated for 24-hours after the SIM swap. It helps to minimize fraud using this method.

[finaleshot2016]

Is it true? There's a possibility that this is false news since many people wanted to down BTC.

It might result in drastic changes since whales have a great factor in the flow of the cryptocurrency market.

Even if you have expertise in cybersecurity, hackers can get what they want especially if it's a group. That's why it's one of the disadvantages once crypto was adapted to be the main currency or use it as a huge business. One of the results also, people will give negative thoughts about crypto regarding this situation.

[angrybirdy]

Is it true? There's a possibility that this is false news since many people wanted to down BTC.

It might result in drastic changes since whales have a great factor in the flow of the cryptocurrency market.

Even if you have expertise in cybersecurity, hackers can get what they want especially if it's a group. That's why it's one of the disadvantages once crypto was adapted to be the main currency or use it as a huge business. One of the results also, people will give negative thoughts about crypto regarding this situation.

We will never know,
But the owner provided a link from his tweet to see the transaction and he is willing to give a reward for whoever can help him. This looks legitimate to me.

And yes, it will really have a drastic effect in the market, this is a huge amount of money and that can drop the price anytime soon.

[meanwords]

Is it true? There's a possibility that this is false news since many people wanted to down BTC.

It might result in drastic changes since whales have a great factor in the flow of the cryptocurrency market.

Even if you have expertise in cybersecurity, hackers can get what they want especially if it's a group. That's why it's one of the disadvantages once crypto was adapted to be the main currency or use it as a huge business. One of the results also, people will give negative thoughts about crypto regarding this situation.

We don't know, just take this post with a grain of salt. There's no way people would donate to that guy, he's a millionaire! but pretty clumsy with his security. It's just that if this is true then there's a potential for the market to tank soon when they start selling Bitcoins and BCH. This amount is not a joke, it's pretty huge.

Maybe this was a way to avoid any tax for that huge amount? possible in my opinion.

[passwordnow]

Another sim hacked? this is huge and I don't know what to say either if ever I'm on that situation.
Can an expert explain how did the hacker got his funds?

Sim hack? Try to read this up on how its being done https://www.pandasecurity.com/mediacenter/security/sim-hijacking-explained/

On topic, i dont know why do people really trust up some centralized services on storing up their holdings. We are talking millions of dollars here
and it would be much more safer if they do just consider on buying or budgeting a hundred bucks for some hardware wallet.

Well, its too late to regret now.

Thanks. But this is the nth time that someone's fund was hacked due to this method and also a big negligence from the owner himself of keeping it there. They never learn from the mistakes of others that if they don't hold the keys, they don't hold the funds. There's someone that commented on the tweet how much the ledger is and that's truly a shame to the owner. Now that I've left the discussion for a day and there's a new story that's circulating which making it more interesting again.

[FanatMonet]

Reading such news,immediately recall the years 2015-2016, when hackers were quite active, the most striking example is the case when a hacker hacked the DAO, and this was one of the main reasons for creating Ethereum Classic. Then it hit ethereum pretty hard.

[Juggy777]

Another sim hacked? this is huge and I don't know what to say either if ever I'm on that situation.
Can an expert explain how did the hacker got his funds?

Sim hack? Try to read this up on how its being done https://www.pandasecurity.com/mediacenter/security/sim-hijacking-explained/

On topic, i dont know why do people really trust up some centralized services on storing up their holdings. We are talking millions of dollars here
and it would be much more safer if they do just consider on buying or budgeting a hundred bucks for some hardware wallet.

Well, its too late to regret now.

Thanks. But this is the nth time that someone's fund was hacked due to this method and also a big negligence from the owner himself of keeping it there. They never learn from the mistakes of others that if they don't hold the keys, they don't hold the funds. There's someone that commented on the tweet how much the ledger is and that's truly a shame to the owner. Now that I've left the discussion for a day and there's a new story that's circulating which making it more interesting again.

When I first read the news I felt that this was another fud attempt, but after seeing this story pop up every where I realised that he had indeed lost his millions to a stupid hack.

While many of us are busy in condemning him I hope others are taking valuable lessons from this hack, and if anyone has got some good suggestions to stay safe from this kind of hack then do post it here so all can read and implement those suggestions to be safe.

[Baby Dragon]

That's really sucks. I know how difficult it is when you lose your asset or someone stole from you. My account was also hacked by some hacker. I lost my asset too. I know how much painful is that. It's really sadly thing that we saw this kinda news regularly. And every time we are failed to protect our asset from hacker. This kinda thing is one of the greatest reason that people afraid of crypto currency. Hope this situation will not repeat again.

I've also been on the same situation where my funds are wasted for nothing because of my own stupidity. I admit my mistakes and accepted the consequences of my actions. It makes me realized that I end up on that situation because of not having enough knowledge on how I can secure my funds from hackers. My experience helped me understand how one mistake can make an impact on your whole funds, it is the reason why I keep myself open for new learning when it comes to protecting our funds from scammers and hackers.

[betty11]

This is scary, although this can't affect the bitcoin market as the market is more than enough to consume the money involved. Wait how can a cybersecurity expert be hacked of such huge fund. why didn't he use a cold storage for such huge amount? I can't leave huge fund in a hot wallet.

[Artemis3]

These hacks, now and then, are a major reason the crypto business is still scary. One would think one already had the cryptos secured in a wallet (even with private keys) only to discover upon login that one had been hacked. Nevertheless, if I were the victim of that hack I wouldn't be putting all my BTC in a single wallet. I would split that into (at least) 10 different wallets.

No. They are the reason PHONES are scary, this was a SIM attack, if you did your banking, stocks, or whatever from it, they could have been stolen as well.

There is no problem with Bitcoin. There is a problem with PEOPLE using PHONES insecurely to handle LARGE amounts from it.

A (smart)phone is insecure, you should never handle anything but small amounts from ir, and expect to lose them at any time (stole phone, etc).

Computers can be insecure, but they are easier to secure than most phones. Installing Linux in a PC is trivial next to a smartphone, where only a few models here and there can get rid of android for something decent. But of course that doesn't include the SIM, ie the line. Perhaps without line, a tablet running Linux can be good enough (it would use wifi, but you at least could torify that).

Splitting is ok, but more importantly is splitting into cold (ie: secured paper with hand written seed words nobody can see) and hot wallets for small "everyday" amounts. Yes, there is no reason to keep large amounts into a hot wallet, Exchanges learned that the hard way.

To keep 45M like that is beyond careless, its irresponsible. I have no sympathy for people like that. Do you, perchance, keep a mountain of banknotes on the back of your car when you drive around and leave it parked in public places for everyone to see? Because this is about the same thing. And no, leaving your car "locked" isn't going to count, you WILL get your money stolen.

[Ailurophile]

These hacks, now and then, are a major reason the crypto business is still scary. One would think one already had the cryptos secured in a wallet (even with private keys) only to discover upon login that one had been hacked. Nevertheless, if I were the victim of that hack I wouldn't be putting all my BTC in a single wallet. I would split that into (at least) 10 different wallets.

No. They are the reason PHONES are scary, this was a SIM attack, if you did your banking, stocks, or whatever from it, they could have been stolen as well.

There is no problem with Bitcoin. There is a problem with PEOPLE using PHONES insecurely to handle LARGE amounts from it.

A (smart)phone is insecure, you should never handle anything but small amounts from ir, and expect to lose them at any time (stole phone, etc).

Computers can be insecure, but they are easier to secure than most phones. Installing Linux in a PC is trivial next to a smartphone, where only a few models here and there can get rid of android for something decent. But of course that doesn't include the SIM, ie the line. Perhaps without line, a tablet running Linux can be good enough (it would use wifi, but you at least could torify that).

Splitting is ok, but more importantly is splitting into cold (ie: secured paper with hand written seed words nobody can see) and hot wallets for small "everyday" amounts. Yes, there is no reason to keep large amounts into a hot wallet, Exchanges learned that the hard way.

To keep 45M like that is beyond careless, its irresponsible. I have no sympathy for people like that. Do you, perchance, keep a mountain of banknotes on the back of your car when you drive around and leave it parked in public places for everyone to see? Because this is about the same thing. And no, leaving your car "locked" isn't going to count, you WILL get your money stolen.

The whale have enough money to buy a hardware wallet but still decides to keep it all in his phone,
It was stollen because of his own foolishness why would you even keep that huge amount on something risky?
It is not like you would spend it daily so you wouldn't need to keep it on a hardware wallet.

[1Referee]

And yes, it will really have a drastic effect in the market, this is a huge amount of money and that can drop the price anytime soon.

How so? It's wrong to assume that stolen coins are sold immediately. In fact, when it comes to such large amounts, it could take months, perhaps years before chunks make it to the spot market. I would say it's quite bullish for the market short term speaking because supply has been taken out of the market.

Obviously, thefts are not a good thing because criminals shouldn't be rewarded for their actions, but price wise it's more bullish than bearish.

[Swordsoffreedom]

Even if you have expertise in cybersecurity, hackers can get what they want especially if it's a group. That's why it's one of the disadvantages once crypto was adapted to be the main currency or use it as a huge business. One of the results also, people will give negative thoughts about crypto regarding this situation.

I think that cryptocurrency should be never adopted as the main currency of a country over paper notes. Though that sounds a bit outdated, but think about a whole country getting robbed by only a single exploit and by a single person- that won't be an ideal situation to fall in. So, my personal opinion is, use cryptocurrency as an alternative to paper notes, not as a replacement.

[stomachgrowls]

Even if you have expertise in cybersecurity, hackers can get what they want especially if it's a group. That's why it's one of the disadvantages once crypto was adapted to be the main currency or use it as a huge business. One of the results also, people will give negative thoughts about crypto regarding this situation.

I think that cryptocurrency should be never adopted as the main currency of a country over paper notes. Though that sounds a bit outdated, but think about a whole country getting robbed by only a single exploit and by a single person- that won't be an ideal situation to fall in. So, my personal opinion is, use cryptocurrency as an alternative to paper notes, not as a replacement.

Lots or almost majority do really hope for that global adoption thing on where crypto would completely replace fiats? Even in our dreams these things wont really happen due to lots of factors
that would block out such possibility and also it isnt really capable on every aspect.People would still prefer fiat in any case in the end of the day.

On topic about a crypto whale got victimized by sim hack then its just pretty dumb for someone on using up his own phone or some web wallet platforms on storing
up those millions.Even storing it on an offline wallet does still have the risk on losing those coins, how much more to those storage which are actively being used online?

[Sanugarid]

https://twitter.com/DoveyWan/status/1231073856669933569

He was reported to be the owner of https://bitcoinbuilder.com/ and the attack vector is SIM hacked.
I really don't know what to say, BTC is already on the move and have been split already. He claim to be a security expert  .

RIP BTC and BCH. Very very expensive lessons to learnt.

https://explorer.bitcoin.com/btc/address/1Edu4yBtfAKwGGsQSa45euTSAG6A2Zbone

What an unfortunate news. We all know that it will affect the market greatly considering the fact that whales holds large amount of bitcoins. That would be a lesson for a lifetime for that certain whale cause that is a huge amount of money, who knows how long it was held just to reach up to that point. Even the richest investors are not exempted from hackers, the higher the money you are currently holding, the higher the risk from scammers and hackers so if you are one of them, be extra careful with your holdings and investments.

[tbterryboy]

Damn man, what are these sim hacks that I have been hearing of lately. I have been seeing news on how people got their wallets hacked through SIM, and I don’t even know how them hackers managed to do this, seems like people are no longer safe here.

Read news on a boy that hacked several of his victims cryptocurrency wallets through this same SIM thing. And the way I see it, I think this only happens with online wallets I guess, since those are the kind of wallets you will have to verify sometimes using your phone number. Offline wallets doesn’t require anything that has to do with any of your details. This is very bad, and I wonder how this victim will be feeling right now losing such an amount of money, $45 million worth of cryptocurrency is too much meehn.  

[tread93]

Someone with that amount of Bitcoin? There is no way they would store on their mobile phone in an exchange or on a samsung phone. This has to be fake. How on earth could a whale let this happen in such a hacker driven environment around the space? I don't believe this.