Ethereum Made A Mockery As Veritaseum Wallet Hack Loses $8.4 Million To Theft
With Ethereum (ETH) rising after recently dipping below the $200 mark, cryptocurrency thieves are back in action, once again stealing a throng of tokens. The most recent theft, which hit Veritaseum’s wallet, was valued at $8.4 million.
The wallet was hit over the weekend, and that’s when all hell broke loose. Veritaseum founder Reggie Middleton explained the theft on the Bitcoin Talk forums, writing, “We were hacked, possibly by a group. The hack seemed to be very sophisticated, but there is at least one corporate partner that may have dropped the ball and be liable. We'll let the lawyers sort that out, if it goes that far.”
According to Middleton, the thieves took the loot, and due to the high demand of VERI, were able to quickly resell them “within a few hours”. It is estimated that the those responsible for heist made off with $8.4 million in ETH during that relatively short period of time. The funds were then stashed in two separate Ethereum wallets. Before once again being dispersed.
The good news is that actual investors weren’t affected by the Ethereum theft. Instead, Middleton says that tokens were only stolen from him and his team, and not actual token buyers. When questioned on whether Veritaseum was being blasé about the theft, Middleton fired back.
“There are 100M tokens issued, the hackers stole about 37k. As I said, it is quite disconcerting, but it is not the end of the world,” said Middleton. “In the scheme of things, this is small. I am not downplaying the seriousness of the heist either, but I am looking at the heist for what it is. A company that we use was compromised, the vulnerability was closed, and we are investigating whether we should move against that company or not.”
Cryptocurrency theft seems to be the new normal these days, as this was the fourth such occurrence this month alone. Just last week, roughly $40 million in Ethereum was stolen in two separate incidents.
