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From the Bitfinex.com homepage:
Investigating - Today we discovered a security breach that requires us to halt all trading on Bitfinex, as well as halt all digital token deposits to and withdrawals from Bitfinex.
We are investigating the breach to determine what happened, but we know that some of our users have had their bitcoins stolen. We are undertaking a review to determine which users have been affected by the breach. While we conduct this initial investigation and secure our environment, bitfinex.com will be taken down and the maintenance page will be left up.
The theft is being reported to—and we are co-operating with—law enforcement.
As we account for individualized customer losses, we may need to settle open margin positions, associated financing, and/or collateral affected by the breach. Any settlements will be at the current market prices as of 18:00 UTC. We are taking this necessary accounting step to normalize account balances with the objective of resuming operations. We will look at various options to address customer losses later in the investigation. While we are halting all operations at this time, we can confirm that the breach was limited to bitcoin wallets; the other digital tokens traded on Bitfinex are unaffected.
The amount was posted in a reddit thread here: I can confirm that the loss from the hack stands at 119,756btc.
According to coindesk.com:
The price of bitcoin fell sharply today exacerbating an already ongoing decline as global market participants reacted to news that one of the largest digital currency exchanges had been hacked.
Earlier this afternoon, Hong Kong-based exchange Bitfinex halted trading after discovering a security breach, which included taking its website offline and pausing all withdrawals and deposits. Representatives from the exchange told CoinDesk engineers were seeking to uncover issues at press time, though the company had confirmed roughly 120,000 BTC (more than $60m) was lost or stolenvia social media.
In response, bitcoin prices fell to $560.16 by 19:30 UTC, $530 by 23:30 and $480 at press time, CoinDesk USD Bitcoin Price Index (BPI) data reveals.
This price was roughly 20% lower than the day's opening of $607.37 and 27% below the high of $658.28 reached on Saturday, 30th July, when the digital currency began pushing lower.
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Wednesday August 03 2016, @05:23AM
I use an off-line wallet. I find it very hard to move Bitcoin. I have been putting off selling my Bitcion for like 6 months now.
I have been putting off repairing my "main" computer for about 9 months now, so that may be related.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by ledow on Wednesday August 03 2016, @07:58AM
I have to say, I've only done a little bit on Bitcoin, but the easiest way I've found is to use direct trades with a high-rated seller via a website offering escrow. There are personal users out there selling Bitcoin for instant trades (complete the trade in ten minutes or it gets cancelled). Thus your money is only at risk of compromise for a few minutes. Though you can still get "scammed", it would likely cost them more in the long run as their original wallets of Bitcoin would be tainted with their reputation and you can see ALL Bitcoin movement out of those tainted wallets. With proper escrow sites, they take the majority of the risk for a small percentage as the wallet the coins are delivered to is theirs, and they don't forward them on until you confirm you've received payment.
If you have Bitcoin that you want to sell, it seems to me to be even safer because the cash needs to land in your bank account BEFORE your Bitcoin gets sent anywhere, and you can get it back a few minutes later if the transaction didn't go through. A lot of the mobile and bank payment options are supported for things like that. And you don't have to do it all to one buyer, you can break it up and thus never risk more than 0.1 BTC or similar.
But, to be honest, I mostly buy Bitcoin as a toy to see how it works, as a way of putting "disposable" cash to one side, and as one of many ways of doing that. Literally, rather than "I'll put £20 into a jar" or "I'll buy this thing I like that will be worth more in the future", "This is my £30 for entertainment this month, that I can blow on cinema or games or even just a big box of those foods I like" or even "I'll stick that £100 from my birthday money into my savings", I put it into things like Bitcoin.
Generally, the only time it comes out is as game purchases on Steam, or things like that. It's my slush fund.
But the easiest way to get it to and from "normal" cash is brief and small personal sales on trusted escrow sites at the moment. It's not actually that difficult to do, either. And if you use have mobile payment service (like PAYM or similar), it takes seconds.
(Score: 2) by rob_on_earth on Wednesday August 03 2016, @08:26AM
would love to hear why it is difficult to cash-out/trade your local bitcoins.
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Wednesday August 03 2016, @04:18PM
My computer does not have the required software, and I do not have my money service business registered yet, so I am restricted to about 1 sale very 6 months.
I don't want to handle sensitive information on a "testing" computer which downloads from many 3rd-party repos. I also plan to install a Bitcoin wallet on my cell-phone, but want to compile it myself (and I block the Google store).
The abundance of caution limits losses, but also prevents me from profiting on the volatility.