Cryptocurrency cyberattacks and breaches of 2019 (in pictures)

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Cryptopia

New Zealand's Cryptopia cryptocurrency exchange was pulled offline due to some form of hack, but details are scant. Trading was suspended and the firm went into liquidation. It has since emerged that users did not hold individual wallets. Estimates suggest that up to $16 million may have been lost.

Published: December 5, 2019 -- 19:15 GMT (11:15 PST)
Caption by: Charlie Osborne
Bitgrail

The previous owner of hacked exchange Bitgrail -- which lost $195 million in Nano coins -- was commanded by an Italian court to return as much in customer funds as possible, leading to the seizure of assets.

Published: December 5, 2019 -- 19:15 GMT (11:15 PST)
Caption by: Charlie Osborne
Bithumb

Bithumb reported another security incident in 2019, the third in two years. It is believed that cyberattackers may have stolen up to $20 million in EOS tokens and Ripple.

Published: December 5, 2019 -- 19:15 GMT (11:15 PST)
Caption by: Charlie Osborne
Binance

Cyberattackers compromised the Binance cryptocurrency exchange platform and made off with $41 million in Bitcoin. Since May, Binance has faced rumors of raids in China, which the company vehemently denies.

Published: December 5, 2019 -- 19:15 GMT (11:15 PST)
Caption by: Charlie Osborne
Bitpoint

Japan-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitpoint was subject to $32 million in cryptocurrency theft, $23 million of which belonged to the organization's customers.

Published: December 5, 2019 -- 19:15 GMT (11:15 PST)
Caption by: Charlie Osborne
€24 million Bitcoin heist

Six arrests were made in the UK and the Netherlands by Europol and Eurojust. The suspects are alleged to have operated a scam that netted them €24 million in Bitcoin (BTC).

Published: December 5, 2019 -- 19:15 GMT (11:15 PST)
Caption by: Charlie Osborne
Upbit

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit said that 342,000 in Ethereum (ETH) had been stolen from the firm's hot wallet, worth roughly $48.5 million. The exchange has promised that customers will not be impacted and the funds will be covered by Upbit assets.

Published: December 5, 2019 -- 19:15 GMT (11:15 PST)
Caption by: Charlie Osborne
PureBit

Despite only being in operation a few months, South Korean cryptocurrency exchange PureBit allegedly pulled an exit scam, taking $3 million in Ethereum with it.

Published: December 5, 2019 -- 19:15 GMT (11:15 PST)
Caption by: Charlie Osborne
PlusToken

PlusToken allegedly performed an exit scam, walking away with $2.9 billion in deposits. Some individuals suspected of being involved have been arrested.

Published: December 5, 2019 -- 19:15 GMT (11:15 PST)
Caption by: Charlie Osborne
Monero

The official Monero website was compromised to deliver a malicious Official Linux CLI binary, tampered to steal funds from unwitting users.

Published: December 5, 2019 -- 19:15 GMT (11:15 PST)
Caption by: Charlie Osborne