[BITSTAMP] Hot wallet problems, stop making bitcoin deposits IMMEDIATELY

[HrN]

I just received an email with that:

Code:

Dear customer,

Today our transaction processing server detected problems with our hot wallet and stopped processing withdrawals.

You should STOP SENDING bitcoin deposits to your Bitstamp account IMMEDIATELY as private keys of your deposit address may be lost.

Your bitcoins already deposited with us are stored in a cold wallet and can not be affected.

We will send you more info as soon as possible.

Best regards,

Bitstamp team

EDIT:
Bitstamp is down now: http://www.bitstamp.net/

Code:

BITSTAMP SERVICE TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED

We have reason to believe that one of Bitstamp’s operational wallets was compromised on January 4th, 2015.
As a security precaution against compromises Bitstamp only maintains a small fraction of customer bitcoins in online systems. Bitstamp maintains more than enough offline reserves to cover the compromised bitcoins.
IN THE MEANTIME, PLEASE DO NOT MAKE DEPOSITS TO PREVIOUSLY ISSUED BITCOIN DEPOSIT ADDRESSES. THEY CANNOT BE HONORED!
Customer deposits made prior to January 5th, 2015 9:00 UTC are fully covered by Bitstamp’s reserves. Deposits made to newly issued addresses provided after January 5th, 2015 9:00 UTC can be honored.
Bitstamp takes our security and soundness very seriously. In an excess of caution, we are suspending service as we continue to investigate. We will return to service and amend our security measures as appropriate.
Bitstamp Team

On bitstamp.net I can't Deposit or Withdraw BITCOINS.
They will close the activity like mtGox?

[reyhan12]

I have the same issue. I'm wondering why there's not more people posting in the forum about this.

[hgmichna]

I received the same email.

Before that I ordered a bitcoin withdrawal, which has not gone through until now, since 15 hours. 20 min after the withdrawal, when I did not see any transaction, I entered a support ticket. There has been no reply to that. Note that the two issues look unrelated at first sight, but only if we believe what they are saying.

It feels like Mt. Gox. Delay and finally stop withdrawals. Blame technical problems or hackers. Worst case is that they gambled on a rising bitcoin price and lost their shirts when the price kept going down.

Not again! I have lost enough on Mt. Gox. If large bitcoin exchanges keep going down, bitcoin could die altogether. Bitcoin is useless if you cannot exchange it reliably for fiat money and if you keep losing it through failing exchanges.

I remember only too vividly how I kept hoping to eventually withdraw my Mt. Gox money. It never happened.

It may be the right time to sell bitcoins, just in case Bitstamp goes down and before the issue becomes widely known. If the fears turn out to be unfounded, buy them again.

[Blazr]

A hot wallet is only supposed to have a small amount of BTC, enough that they can easily cover losses. If it's only the hot wallet and they were using the hot wallet correctly (IE only having a small amount of funds in it) then everything should be OK.

[Bitalo_Martin]

deposits should never go to a hot wallet. This point does not make much sense to me. It seems to be a severe incident and I assume it does not even matter if you have FIAT or coins there.

People should start using services where service providers do not take over control over the coins at all. This is possible with user-side encrypted private keys, multi-signature wallets and even backup transactino in case the service goes completely offline.

bitalo.com or greenaddres have implemented these systems, people just need to use it

[N12]

1: They need to prove right now how much money they have in cold storage
2: Bitstamp needs to be actually audited (by financial professionals) on a regular basis in the future
3: IMPLEMENT MULTI-SIGNATURE FOR WITHDRAWALS

If 3 doesn't happen, this will keep happening forever. We have the tools, but we haven't forced our complacent, amateurish, borderline criminal exchanges to adopt them.

It's time to pressurize them.

[Blazr]

deposits should never go to a hot wallet.

That doesn't really matter if your customers are using unique addresses for each deposit. If an attacker can access your hot wallet, chances are he can give your customers deposit addresses that he controls.

[HrN]

Pff. Now is closed :|

Code:

BITSTAMP SERVICE TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED

We have reason to believe that one of Bitstamp’s operational wallets was compromised on January 4th, 2015.
As a security precaution against compromises Bitstamp only maintains a small fraction of customer bitcoins in online systems. Bitstamp maintains more than enough offline reserves to cover the compromised bitcoins.
IN THE MEANTIME, PLEASE DO NOT MAKE DEPOSITS TO PREVIOUSLY ISSUED BITCOIN DEPOSIT ADDRESSES. THEY CANNOT BE HONORED!
Customer deposits made prior to January 5th, 2015 9:00 UTC are fully covered by Bitstamp’s reserves. Deposits made to newly issued addresses provided after January 5th, 2015 9:00 UTC can be honored.
Bitstamp takes our security and soundness very seriously. In an excess of caution, we are suspending service as we continue to investigate. We will return to service and amend our security measures as appropriate.
Bitstamp Team

[bounst]

what happened with bitstamp?

[HrN]

what happened with bitstamp?

MtGox II ?

[TXWA]

Oh no.. But I really expected this  
Let's see how it goes on...

[spin]

I made a withdrawal just over 24 hours before receiving the email.  That withdrawal had been sitting on pending since then.  

It's defintely related:

Today our transaction processing server detected problems with our hot wallet and stopped processing withdrawals.

That's from their email.

I had been making somewhat regular withdrawals during this period:
- The last successful was seen by blockchain.info at about 2015-01-04 02h20 GMT
- My withdrawal at at bitstamp at somewhere after 2015-01-04 04h00 GMT was not processed.

I suspect their system stopped withdrawals somewhere in between those times.

I hate to say it but that indicates a small(?) lie.  I.e. their email said "Today" but was dated 5 Jan.  I at least received it more than 24 hours after my withdrawals were being blocked.

[mayax]

they are hacked. they lost "some" funds. nobody knows how much. anyway, it's a large amount even they say that it is only a "fraction"

[mayax]

Pff. Now is closed :|

Code:

BITSTAMP SERVICE TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED

We have reason to believe that one of Bitstamp’s operational wallets was compromised on January 4th, 2015.
As a security precaution against compromises Bitstamp only maintains a small fraction of customer bitcoins in online systems. Bitstamp maintains more than enough offline reserves to cover the compromised bitcoins.
IN THE MEANTIME, PLEASE DO NOT MAKE DEPOSITS TO PREVIOUSLY ISSUED BITCOIN DEPOSIT ADDRESSES. THEY CANNOT BE HONORED!
Customer deposits made prior to January 5th, 2015 9:00 UTC are fully covered by Bitstamp’s reserves. Deposits made to newly issued addresses provided after January 5th, 2015 9:00 UTC can be honored.
Bitstamp takes our security and soundness very seriously. In an excess of caution, we are suspending service as we continue to investigate. We will return to service and amend our security measures as appropriate.
Bitstamp Team

It will be bad if case like MtGox Happened, bitcoin price will falling down again
Maybe it's time to sell ?

I would sell if I were you...even it is a "small" issue with Bitstamp(i think they are hacked and they lost a lot of money but they earned a lot from their clients until now, so they can cover).... the Bitcoin price will go down; may around of 200 or lower USD.

[mayax]

I received the same email.

Before that I ordered a bitcoin withdrawal, which has not gone through until now, since 15 hours. 20 min after the withdrawal, when I did not see any transaction, I entered a support ticket. There has been no reply to that. Note that the two issues look unrelated at first sight, but only if we believe what they are saying.

It feels like Mt. Gox. Delay and finally stop withdrawals. Blame technical problems or hackers. Worst case is that they gambled on a rising bitcoin price and lost their shirts when the price kept going down.

Not again! I have lost enough on Mt. Gox. If large bitcoin exchanges keep going down, bitcoin could die altogether. Bitcoin is useless if you cannot exchange it reliably for fiat money and if you keep losing it through failing exchanges.

I remember only too vividly how I kept hoping to eventually withdraw my Mt. Gox money. It never happened.

It may be the right time to sell bitcoins, just in case Bitstamp goes down and before the issue becomes widely known. If the fears turn out to be unfounded, buy them again.

very good point, hgmichna.
BitStamp can cover the loss. they made millions as profit from their clients so they can cover almost any loss IF they want that, of course. The Bitcoin price will go down for sure. It's a normal. This is happening on any stock market when a BIG company has problems; the whole market is going down for a period of time.
If the Bitcoin price will not fall, that means something is fishy...it won't be according with the any common sense...

So, sell now and buy later.

[haploid23]

WTF is this.... I've been out for a couple days, came back to make some trades, and see their website is completely suspended. I'm getting the mtgox deja vu. I've got a hefty sum of both BTC and fiat on there  

As if price haven't dipped low enough, this incident will most likely further dip the price, and I can't even move whatever BTC for fiat stuck on there...

[mayax]

WTF is this.... I've been out for a couple days, came back to make some trades, and see their website is completely suspended. I'm getting the mtgox deja vu. I've got a hefty sum of both BTC and fiat on there  

As if price haven't dipped low enough, this incident will most likely further dip the price, and I can't even move whatever BTC for fiat stuck on there...

haploid23, don't go anywhere from now on. it's bringing bad luck your absence )

[smoothie]

WTF is this.... I've been out for a couple days, came back to make some trades, and see their website is completely suspended. I'm getting the mtgox deja vu. I've got a hefty sum of both BTC and fiat on there  

As if price haven't dipped low enough, this incident will most likely further dip the price, and I can't even move whatever BTC for fiat stuck on there...

Wow man that sucks. Why would you keep a heft sum of btc and fiat on the exchange?

Bitstamp has been great to use since I started using them (with few issues) but even then I still didn't trust them 100%.

I hope this is not MTGOX part 2.

[eliale]

People should start using services where service providers do not take over control over the coins at all. This is possible with user-side encrypted private keys, multi-signature wallets and even backup transactino in case the service goes completely offline.

bitalo.com or greenaddres have implemented these systems, people just need to use it

The Rock Trading implemented multi-sig with greenaddress

[Mieehayii]

what happened with bitstamp?

MtGox II ?

wish it is not.
but if bitstamp were gone, are there any single bitcoin exchanges? the future will be the world of altcoin exchange and leverage casino.