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$270,000: Brazil’s Largest Bitcoin Exchange Foxbit Down for 72 Hours, 30 BTC missing
Foxbit, Brazil’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has been down for over 72 hours, reportedly because of a bug that allowed its users to withdraw their bitcoin balances twice. The problem saw the company lose a total of 30 Bitcoins, at press time worth roughly $270,000.
Through a livestream on YouTube, the company’s CEO João Canhada and COO Luís Augusto Schiavon, revealed the bug saw its users take advantage of the exchange’s withdrawal system to duplicate 130 withdrawals. After realizing what was going on, Foxbit immediately launched an emergency maintenance mode to halt withdrawals. The maintenance mode reportedly corrupted some of its service providers’ data.
Per the company’s executives, data is now being restored, and Foxbit should be back up by March 14. Through a blog post, the cryptocurrency exchange informed its users that it wasn’t hacked, and linked back to two cold wallets to show their funds were safe. In an attempt to calm its users down, Canhada and Schiavon stated (roughly translated):
“All funds are protected, both in reais and in bitcoins. Several clients have already returned duplicate values and we are in touch with everyone. We have a specific fund to cover possible losses and the funds in reais are safe in our bank accounts. The platform was neither hacked nor stolen. “
The company’s CEO and COO merely stated they were paying close attention to what was going on but didn’t go any further.
