Mt. Gox Hack

Mt. Gox Bitcoin exchange suffered a massive breach resulting in the theft of 25,000 BTC (US$400,000 at the time) from 478 accounts, affecting accounts with the equivalent of more than $8,750,000.

The incident began on 13 June 2011, when Mt. Gox reported the theft of 25,000 BTC from 478 accounts. On 17 June, Mt.

Gox's user database was leaked for sale to pastebin, signed by ~cRazIeStinGeR~ and tied to [email protected]. The theft continued throughout that day. On 19 June, a hacker allegedly used credentials from a Mt.

Gox auditor's compromised computer to transfer a large number of bitcoins illegally to himself, causing the nominal price of a bitcoin to fraudulently drop to one cent on the Mt. Gox exchange. The hacker used the exchange's software to sell all the bitcoins nominally, creating a massive "ask" order at any price.

The price corrected to its correct user-traded value within minutes.