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Analyst: Mt. Gox Lost 100,000 More Bitcoins Apart From the $2.5 Billion Hack

According to Tuur Demeester, a prominent bitcoin analyst and investor, now-defunct Japanese bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox lost 100,000 more bitcoin in seven independent incidents apart from its major security breach in 2013 which led to the loss of $2.5 billion.

Four years ago, Mt. Gox had over 550,000 bitcoin stolen from its hot wallet by anonymous hackers. Within bitcoin, there exists two separate types of wallets: cold and hot. The former refers to bitcoin wallets that are not connected to the internet and managed offline. Hot wallets are connected online that are widely utilized by bitcoin users internationally.

Upon its declaration of bankruptcy, the Japanese government and its financial regulators launched a full investigation into the exchange and embezzlement charges against Mark Karpeles, the former CEO of Mt. Gox. Karpeles was made responsible for the loss of the majority of user funds, which in today’s value amount to a staggering $2.5 billion in user funds.

However, in a statement, Demeester revealed that the exchange had lost an additional 100,000 bitcoins in seven independent incidents dating back to 2011, two years prior to the major security breach was disclosed.

Bitcoin and security researcher Kim Nilsson further noted in a presentation at the Breaking Bitcoin conference in Paris that through consistent patterns, Mt. Gox hackers were able to retrieve 650,000 bitcoins over a long period of time.

More importantly, Nilsson explained that Karpeles was arrested by the Japanese law enforcement for a number of reasons including the proven long-term insolvency of Mt. Gox, more than eight publicly disclosed security breaches, trading its own liabilities, and connection of Mt. Gox to other bitcoin thefts.

Earlier this year, when BTC-E owner Alexander Vinnick was linked to the Mt.Gox and Bitcoinica hacks and was arrested by the Greek government, entirely new pieces of information in regard to the Mt. Gox hacks surfaced. Security research firm WizSec, which first linked Mt. Gox hacks to Vinnick and had been collaborating with various law enforcement agencies, explained that it was unlikely for a single person to carry out the thefts.

Vinnick was also involved in laundering cash and bitcoin for 90 percent of the world’s ransomware distributors, which accounted to $4 billion in total. After being arrested by the Greek government for money laundering charges and conspiracy, the US law enforcement seized the servers of BTC-E and imposed a fine of over $100 million to the operators.

The arrest of Vinnick and the crackdown on BTC-E allowed law enforcement agencies to move one step closer toward searching for the identities behind the Mt. Gox hack. But, the disclosure of seven independent hacks apart from the major security breach and other intricacies of the Mt. Gox demise have created more controversy than clarity.

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