$3.3 Million stolen from main Coinsecure Bitcoin wallet

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinsecure, India’s second exchange, announced that it has suffered a severe issue, 438 bitcoin, $3,3 million worth of bitcoin

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinsecure, India’s second exchange, announced that it has suffered a severe issue, 438 bitcoin, $3,3 million worth of bitcoin, have been transferred from the main wallet to an account that is not under their control.

CEO Mohit Kalra said that only he the Chief Strategist officer (CSO) Dr. Amitabh Saxena had private keys to the exchange’s main wallet.

“The current issue points towards losses caused during an exercise to extract BTG to distribute to our customers. Our Chief Strategist officer (CSO) Dr. Amitabh Saxena was extracting BTG and he claims that the funds have been lost in the process during the extraction of the private keys.” reads the statement published by Coinsecure.

According to the CEO of Coinsecure, the CSO is responsible for the transfer, the company posted two imaged on the websites containing company statement signed by the Coinsecure team and a scanned copy of a police complaint filed by Coinsecure CEO Mohit Kalra.

The Coinsecure CEO excluded the transfer was the result of a hack and accused the CSO, but Dr. Saxena denied any involvement in the case and informed Coinsecure that the funds “were stolen from company’s Bitcoin wallet due to some attack.”.

“Our system itself has never been compromised or hacked, and the current issue points towards losses caused during an exercise to extract BTG [Bitcoin Gold] to distribute to our customers, ” the Coinsecure team wrote in its statement

“Our CSO, Dr. Amitabh Saxena, was extracting BTG and he claims that funds have been lost in the process during the extraction of the private keys,” Coinsecure added.

“[he] making a false story to divert [his] attention and might have a role to play in this entire incident.”

The CEO is asking local police to seize the Saxena’s passport because he fears that the employee “might fly out of the country soon.”

Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.