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List of Major Bitcoin Heists, Thefts, Hacks, Scams, and Losses
by
dree12
on 19/04/2014, 01:56:22 UTC
⭐ Merited by hugeblack (15) ,dbshck (12) ,malevolent (7) ,suchmoon (4) ,Husna QA (3) ,FuzzyBear (2) ,levyashin (2) ,ETFbitcoin (2) ,apoorvlathey (1) ,xtraelv (1) ,vapourminer (1) ,elianite (1) ,GazetaBitcoin (1) ,bitbollo (1)
Last updated: November 16, 2014, 12:36:50 AM. (However, some entries remain on the backlog.)

List of Bitcoin Heists
Following is the result of research on prior Bitcoin-related thefts. The list strives to be as accurate and informative as possible, and where possible I have provided references for assertions made within. For disputed thefts, I have applied best judgement and included the ones that were most publicly accepted.

Because of the volatile nature of Bitcoin's exchange price, I have denominated heist estimates in BTC. Although not heists per se, major permanent bitcoin-denominated losses are also included in this list. If I missed any major thefts, heists, or losses, or if you have any other information to contribute to one of these events, please leave a reply in this thread.

Note that this thread is relatively new and was created because of space limitations in the original thread.

Additionally, I would be grateful if contributors write commentary for each theft. Ideally, the theft descriptions should be as detailed as possible. Much of the present commentary is inadequate.

Table of Contents

License
This entire document is licensed under the public domain. If that would is not permissible in your jurisdiction, it can then be licensed under any permissible license of your choosing.

The author of this list believes all information contained thereof to be factual; however, the author takes no responsibility for any losses associated with factual inaccuracies in the list.

Factual inaccuracies
Although I make every attempt to ensure information in the list is well-cited and factual, there is always the possibility of error (whether on my part or on my source's part). If you find a factual inaccuracy, please report it. You will be credited appropriately for such reports.

Donation
Donations are appreciated and are accepted at 1MLSW1nmYkHqaHWNNkHSAHct6exd8fYYLX. Alternatively, consider a donation to a charitable cause. Many victims of these thefts accept donations, and they likely need the donations more than I.

Scope
Without properly-defined bounds, this list could not possibly be complete. Consequently, several clauses below limit the scope of the list.

General
Generally, a major heist, theft, hack, scam, or loss must cause damage greater than or equal to 500 BTC, in BTC damage only, to qualify for inclusion in this list. Thefts related to Bitcoin but with most damage in another currency do not qualify, unless customers were damaged in BTC. Borderline thefts may qualify if reasonable estimates are over or equal to 500 BTC. Thefts that do not strictly qualify but are of significant importance are listed in the thefts not included section.

Losses are included only if they are unintentional. This obviates the need to include many incidents where people delete wallets due to lack of value at the time before 2011, and additionally prevents the inclusion of more recent “proof-of-burn” alternative cryptocurrencies that require bitcoins to be destroyed.

If a theft is included on this list because it was thought at the time to qualify, but more recent analysis shows that it does not, it may potentially remain on this list despite not meeting the requirements.

Understood risk
Some losses of Bitcoin to third parties cannot in principle be classified as scams or losses.

While it is certainly true that some securities are intended as scams, and they should certainly be included in the list if they are, several high-profile company disasters could not be honestly included on this list. For instance, a company's failure to return funds raised during the IPO through profits is not in itself sufficient to be a scam. The risk involved here is an “understood risk”.

However, this does not absolve all who create securities. Those who intend the securities to be a scam, or through negligence or willful blindness allow it to become a scam, will still be included on the list. In these scenarios, the risk to the investors is not agreed to by the investors, hence it is not an “understood risk”. Incompetence by itself is however insufficient for a security to be classified as a scam.

Other trivial incidents can be excluded by the same principle. For example, a large gambling loss is obviously not a scam, because the risk was understood. But if evidence indicates that the casino rigged the games, then the risk is no longer understood, and the incident is eligible for the list.

Because sometimes the evidence is not clear-cut, this list includes or refuses to include incidents based on the best evidence available. If a reasonable interpretation of the event suggests that it was not within understood risk, it will be included in this list, even if alternative interpretations exist.

This policy does not apply to thefts.

Managing Bitcoin prices
It is well-known that Bitcoin prices are volatile. Before 2011, the value of a single BTC was extremely low. Consequently, this list ignores most events that occurred before 2011. If a theft, hack, scam, or loss caused damage less than 5000 BTC before 2011, it is not listed on this list at all.

For several years during which the Bitcoin price fluctuated greatly, there are also USD cutoff values. In those years, both the BTC cutoff value and the USD cutoff value must be met for the theft to be included.

Cutoff values so far are below:
YearCutoff ValueSeverity list cutoff
20095000 BTCN/A
20105000 BTCN/A
20111000 BTC12000 $
20121000 BTC12000 $
20131000 BTC12000 $
2014500 BTCN/A

Included borderline thefts
Before 2014, another clause was used to include several thefts due to the rapidly appreciating Bitcoin price. This clause is no longer in effect. Borderline thefts, which had less than 1000 BTC in total damages, may still have been included if their total damage when measured in June 2013 BTC exceeds 500 BTC. This measurement was based on Mt. Gox price data prior to 2013-06-09, Bitstamp price data after 2013-06-10, and US CPI data published by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Instructions
For ease of navigation, I have assigned each theft a name. Note that this name is neither official nor permanent and is used solely for ease of navigation. To search for the heading that details the actual theft, simply use your browser's Find function and search for the name. This will either bring you to the theft itself, or a link to the theft. If the latter, simply click the link to be directed to the theft.

Some links will appear in commentary and in lists. These can be clicked; their destination is set to the beginning of the linked incident's section.

List of events by severity
In this section, each theft is listed alongside the value stolen when converted to a January 2014 BTC equivalent along with the value stolen when converted to real (inflation-adjusted) USD.[1] This represents the true value stolen and is generally the best list in that regard.

Note that this list makes no effort to restrict the precision of the numbers nor to indicate what type of estimates each number represents. Please see the following list for such data.

RankNameSeverity (January 2014 BTC)USD Equivalent
12014 Mt. Gox Collapse850000.000 BTC700258171 $
2Silk Road Seizure32716.283 BTC26867560 $
3Sheep Marketplace Incident4978.276 BTC4070923 $
4Silk Road 2 Incident4400.000 BTC3624866 $
5GBL Scam4185.734 BTC3437446 $
6MintPal Incident3894.492 BTC3208412 $
7Bitcoin Savings and Trust3700.408 BTC2983473 $
8PicoStocks Hack3679.520 BTC3009397 $
9MyBitcoin Theft1395.691 BTC1072570 $
10CryptoRush Theft950.000 BTC782641 $
11Flexcoin Theft896.104 BTC738240 $
12BIPS Hack808.140 BTC660959 $
13Inputs.io Hack780.069 BTC640615 $
14James Howells Loss763.965 BTC627659 $
15Allinvain Theft580.983 BTC445688 $
16BASIC-MINING405.445 BTC332963 $
17July 2012 Bitcoinica Theft398.757 BTC315133 $
18Bitfloor Theft338.861 BTC273209 $
19Bitcash.cz Hack302.517 BTC247422 $
20Bitomat.pl Loss301.332 BTC231570 $
21Bitcoin Rain283.696 BTC231440 $
22Linode Hacks281.818 BTC223278 $
23May 2012 Bitcoinica Hack240.993 BTC191638 $
24ZigGap240.128 BTC195490 $
25Vircurex Theft199.938 BTC163351 $
26Tony Silk Road Scam184.356 BTC146944 $
27Stefan Thomas Loss162.675 BTC124793 $
28Just Dice Incident132.436 BTC108807 $
29Cdecker Theft129.745 BTC104607 $
30Ozcoin Theft129.713 BTC105600 $
31Mass MyBitcoin Thefts93.409 BTC71656 $
32BTCGuild Incident88.939 BTC72556 $
332013 Fork68.094 BTC55551 $
34Bit LC Theft63.434 BTC51480 $
35June 2011 Mt. Gox Incident61.428 BTC47123 $
36Kronos Hack53.633 BTC42859 $
372012 Trojan49.054 BTC39146 $
38BTC-E Hack44.860 BTC35452 $
39Mooncoin Theft28.831 BTC22346 $
40Bitcoin7 Incident20.703 BTC15980 $
41Ubitex Scam20.189 BTC15515 $
42Betcoin Theft19.490 BTC15534 $
43Bitcoin Syndicate Theft18.469 BTC14595 $
442012 50BTC Theft16.678 BTC13437 $
45Andrew Nollan Scam13.961 BTC10895 $
46October 2011 Mt. Gox Loss10.804 BTC8340 $
47Bitscalper Scam8.156 BTC6461 $
48Stone Man Loss0.758 BTC544 $

List of events by BTC value stolen
NB: This section is out of date.
In this section, each theft is listed along with its rank, severity, and time, ordered by the highest mBTC value stolen from most severe to least. To navigate to a theft, simply click on the link.

Critical (≥10 kBTC)
RankNameTimeSeverity
1Bitcoin Savings and Trust2011–2012est. 263024 BTC
2Silk Road SeizureOctober 2013171955.09292687 BTC
3MyBitcoin TheftJuly 201178739.58205388 BTC
4Linode HacksMarch 2012l.b. 46653.46630495 BTC
5July 2012 Bitcoinica TheftJuly 201240000.00000000 BTC
6*May 2012 Bitcoinica HackMay 2012
Unresolved as of December 2012		18547.66867623 BTC
39000 BTC total impact
7Allinvain TheftJune 201125000.01000000 BTC
8Tony Silk Road ScamApril 2012est. 30000 BTC
9Bitfloor TheftSeptember 2012u.b. 24086.17219307 BTC
10Bitomat.pl LossAugust 2011est. 17000 BTC
* Rank includes pass-through impact

Major (≥1 kBTC)
RankNameTimeSeverity
11Cdecker TheftSeptember 20129222.21195900 BTC
12Stone Man LossAugust 20108999.00000000 BTC
13Stefan Thomas LossJune 2011est. 7000 BTC
14Bitcoin7 IncidentOctober 2011l.b. 5000 BTC u.b. 15000 BTC
15BTC-E HackJuly 2012est. 4500 BTC
16Inputs.io HackOctober 2013est. 4100 BTC
17Mass MyBitcoin TheftsJune 20114019.42939378 BTC
18Mooncoin TheftSeptember 2011est. 4000 BTC
19Kronos HackUnknownest. 4000 BTC
20Bitcoin Rain2011–2013est. 4000 BTC
212012 TrojanSeptember through November 20123500 BTC a. 3457 BTC
22Betcoin TheftApril 20123171.50195016 BTC
23June 2011 Mt. Gox IncidentJune 2011l.b. 2643.27 BTC
24October 2011 Mt. Gox LossOctober 20112609.36304319 BTC
25Andrew Nollan ScamFebruary 2012l.b. 2211.07786728 BTC
26BASIC-MININGOctober 2013a. 2131 BTC
27Bit LC TheftFebruary 2013est. 2000 BTC
28Bitcoin Syndicate TheftJuly 20121852.61553553 BTC
29ZigGap2012a. 1708.65967460 BTC
30Bitscalper Scam2012est. 1350.10259806 BTC
31Just Dice IncidentJuly 20131300.15500000 BTC
32BTCGuild IncidentMarch 2013a. 1254 BTC
332012 50BTC TheftOctober 20121173.51659074 BTC
34Ubitex Scam2011a. 1138.98 BTC

Borderline (<1 kBTC)
RankNameTimeSeverity
352013 ForkMarch 2013960.09645667 BTC
36Ozcoin TheftApril 2013922.99063322 BTC