Nicehash, the cloud mining service that got hacked in December, has returned 60 percent of the stolen bitcoins, according to local media. After the cyberattack last year, the Slovenian company promised to fully reimburse its customers and has been doing it on a monthly basis. The police investigation into the case is still ongoing.
Reimbursements Made on Monthly Basis
Slovenia-based crypto-mining pool Nicehash has managed to return 60 percent of about 4,700 bitcoins (BTC) stolen in a hacking attack last year, STA reported. In December, 2017 when crypto prices were heading towards their all-time highs, the missing cryptocurrency was valued at approximately 56 million EUR (~$65 million USD).
The price of bitcoin core (BTC) has dropped from almost $20,000 USD per coin in the weeks following the cybercrime incident to around $6,700 dollars at the time of writing, or almost 70 percent.
Nicehash was hacked on December 6, when its website went down and it was forced to interrupt operations. “Our payment system was compromised, and the contents of the Nicehash bitcoin wallet have been stolen,” the company announced in a Reddit post.
The platform was back online just two weeks after the security breach. Its team pledged to fully reimburse the pool members for their losses. So far, the reimbursements have been made on a monthly basis.
Investigation Going On in Slovenia
The criminal investigation into the case is still ongoing, the Slovenian press agency noted citing representatives of the Ljubljana Police Department. “Information gathering and other activities are still underway and carried out with the help of international legal collaboration,” the police said in a press release quoted by STA.
Slovenian police officials commented that this type of investigations are among the most demanding and lengthy, Total Slovenia News reported. Hackers are usually based abroad and act from different parts of the world, using a variety of techniques to conceal their identity and location.
The Ljubljana-headquartered Nicehash claims to be the “largest crypto-mining marketplace.” The service connects sellers and buyers of hashing power. Buyers rent computing power through its online platform in order to mine bitcoin core (BTC). Sellers have to run the Nicehash mining software and connect their hardware to the pool’s servers. The company was founded by Marko Kobal and Matjaž Škorjanc in 2014.