BIT Mining has reported this incident to authorities in Shenzhen, China, who are investigating the incident and collecting more evidence.
BTC.com, one of the largest crypto mining pools, suffered a major cyberattack which resulted in a significant loss of customer funds. Parent firm BIT Mining Limited made the announcement on Monday, December 26.
Bitcoin Mining Pool and Recent Cyberattack
As reported by BIT Mining, the attack took place earlier this month on December 3 with the attackers stealing around $700,000 in client assets and a staggering $2.3 million in company attacks. BIT Mining has reported this cyberattack to law enforcement authorities in Shenzhen, China.
As a result, the local authorities have launched an investigation into the matter. They have started collecting evidence and have requested assistance from several agencies in China. The announcement from BIT Mining notes that their efforts have helped BTC.com recover some of its assets.
“The Company will devote considerable efforts to recover the stolen digital assets,” noted BIT Mining. They also added that they have deployed technology to better “block and intercept hackers”. Despite the major hacking incident, BTC.com has continued to run its mining services. It noted:
“In the wake of discovering this cyberattack, the company has implemented technology to better block and intercept hackers. BTC.com is currently operating its business as usual, and apart from its digital asset services, its client fund services are unaffected.”
Not So Good Year for BTC.com
This year of 2022 hasn’t been good enough for the entire Bitcoin mining industry in general. With the fall in the price of Bitcoin, the margins for Bitcoin miners have been squeezed considerably. On the other hand, Bitcoin miners are also facing the heat of rising energy costs. As a result, over the last year, shares of the Bitcoin miner are down by 98%.
As said, BTC.com is one of the world’s largest crypto-mining pools offering multicurrency services for different assets like Bitcoin and Litecoin. Apart from the mining services, BTC.com also operates a blockchain browser. BIT Mining, the parent organization of BTC.com is a publicly-traded company operating on the New York Stock Exchange.
Also, the mining pool BTC.com is the seventh-biggest worldwide accounting for nearly 2.5% of the total mining pool distribution. It also has a hash rate of 5.80 exahashes per second (EH/s). BTC.com’s all-time contribution also accounts for more than 5% of the total Bitcoin hashrate.
The recent development might give China another reason to crack down harder on the Bitcoin mining operations in the country.
Bhushan is a FinTech enthusiast and holds a good flair in understanding financial markets. His interest in economics and finance draw his attention towards the new emerging Blockchain Technology and Cryptocurrency markets. He is continuously in a learning process and keeps himself motivated by sharing his acquired knowledge. In free time he reads thriller fictions novels and sometimes explore his culinary skills.
