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Bitcoins stolen after cryptocurrency site NiceHash hacked

Cryptocurrency website NiceHash said on Wednesday it has been hacked with an unconfirmed number of Bitcoins it held stolen.
Cryptocurrency website NiceHash said on Wednesday it has been hacked with an unconfirmed number of Bitcoins it held stolen. Rick Bowmer/AP

Cryptocurrency website NiceHash said in a press release on Wednesday evening it has suffered a security breach that compromised its digital wallet, believed to be holding millions of dollars worth of bitcoins.

“The contents of the NiceHash Bitcoin wallet have been stolen. We are working to verify the precise number of BTC taken,” the company said in a statement released on Reddit.

The site had been down for hours for what NiceHash initially said was maintenance. As the outage protracted through the day, speculation swirled on social media that its digital wallet had been hacked.

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“While the full scope of what happened is not yet known, we recommend, as a precaution, that you change your online passwords,” the site told users.

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Bitcoin exchanges are often the target of cyberattacks and have been the victims of high-profile thefts in the past.

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Such attacks can cause the value of the currency to plummet, although the drops are normally short-lived.

Bitcoin surpassed the $16,000-mark on Wednesday.

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