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2gether hacked: €1.2m in cryptocurrency stolen, native tokens offered in exchange

Almost a third of funds stored in cryptocurrency investment accounts have been taken.
Written by Charlie Osborne, Contributing Writer

2gether has revealed a cyberattack in which roughly €1.2 million in cryptocurrency has been stolen from cryptocurrency investment accounts. 

Founded in 2017, 2gether offers a cryptocurrency trading platform within the Eurozone for buying and selling without additional fees. The organization's native coin is the 2GT token, which is -- or, at least, was -- due to be issued during 2020 following a pre-sale in Spain. 

However, on July 31 at 6.00 pm CEST, the trading platform suffered a cyberattack on its servers. 

The unknown threat actors reportedly behind the attack made off with €1.183 million in cryptocurrency in investment accounts, which equates to 26.79% of overall funds. 

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In a stream of Twitter updates posted by 2together CEO Ramón Ferraz Estrada, the executive was keen to emphasize that general wallets and Euro accounts were not impacted, nor were the financial details of payment cards used to deposit funds. 

However, user passwords were also compromised in the security breach, and it is recommended that users change them. 

2together has not revealed how the security incident took place. An investigation is underway to find out how the cyberattackers managed to obtain access to the company's servers, as well as the full extent of the damage caused. 

The cryptocurrency platform added that information is being "gathered" to give to local authorities. 

In an update posted August 1, Ferraz, Chairman Salvador Casquero, and Director Luis Estrada said the "extremely difficult situation has brought us all a lot of uncertainty," branding the hackers responsible as "soulless individuals."

The executives said that following the theft, the platform does not have enough funds to cover all of its bases and so an emergency discussion took place with an unnamed "investment firm" to try and secure a cash injection.  

However, an agreement was not reached -- and so the only alternative is to offer users the equivalent of their stolen cryptocurrency in the native 2GT token.

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"We want to compensate the amount of stolen cryptocurrency (26.79% of your position before the attack) with a volume in 2GT equivalent to the issuance price of 5 cents," the team said. "On top of that, we commit to keep looking, at top capacity and as soon as possible, for additional funds to make up for every single one of your cryptocurrencies."

The executives said that if it was possible to use other funds, they would, but in the meantime, the technical team is working on reestablishing the trading app to reopen access "as soon as possible and with all the security measures available."

A Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) will take place in the next few days to answer investor questions, according to 2gether. 

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"We hope you can see these hard times and adverse events compensated soon, whether you decide to give us the vote of confidence we're asking you for or not," the team added.

In other cryptocurrency news, last week, China arrested 109 individuals in a massive sting connected to the PlusToken Ponzi scheme. 

The South Korean exchange was touted as a high-yield investment for those with little experience in cryptocurrency, while also offering a commission for members who sign up new traders. When the team performed what is thought to be an exit scam, an estimated $3 - $6 billion in deposits was taken, and many of the PlusToken management team fled abroad.

Cryptocurrency cyberattacks and breaches of 2019 (in pictures)

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