Crypto heists, or incidents where hackers steal large amounts of cryptocurrencies, have unfortunately become increasingly common over the years. Here are some of the top crypto heists of all time, in no particular order:
- Mt. Gox: Mt. Gox was one of the largest Bitcoin exchanges in the world until it was hacked in 2014 and around 850,000 Bitcoins were stolen. This was worth around $473 million at the time and would be worth billions of dollars today.
- Bitfinex: In 2016, the Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex was hacked and 120,000 Bitcoins were stolen. This was worth around $72 million at the time and would be worth billions of dollars today.
- Coincheck: In 2018, the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck was hacked and around $534 million worth of NEM coins were stolen. This was one of the largest cryptocurrency heists in history and led to increased scrutiny of cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan.
- Binance: In 2019, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, Binance, was hacked and 7,000 Bitcoins were stolen. This was worth around $40 million at the time and led to increased security measures being implemented by the exchange.
- Poly Network: In 2021, the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Poly Network was hacked and around $610 million worth of cryptocurrencies were stolen. The hacker returned the stolen funds shortly afterwards, but the incident highlighted the vulnerabilities of DeFi platforms.
These are just a few of the largest and most notable crypto heists in history, but unfortunately, there have been many others. It’s important for cryptocurrency users to remain vigilant and take steps to secure their holdings, such as using strong passwords, enabling two-factor authentication, and storing their coins in cold storage wallets.
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