UK Bitcoin exchange Bitstamp suspended after hack

Latest Bitcoin hack sees £3.43m stolen from UK-based Bitcoin exchange

Following a hack of £3.43m worth of Bitcoins on 4 January, the UK-based Bitcoin exchange Bitstamp has been suspended.

The virtual currency exchange released a statement on its website yesterday afternoon which alerted customers to the breach in which 19,000 Bitcoins (worth £3.43m) were lost.

Over the past 12 months Bitcoin has started to make its way into the channel, with several electronics retailers, such as Scan, Overclockers, CeX and Aria Technologies accepting payments with the virtual currency.

Bitstamp assured users that Bitcoins held with it prior to the service being suspended on 5 January are "completely safe and will be honoured in full".

The site also told customers to no longer make deposits to previously issued Bitcoin deposit addresses.

Bitstamp said: "This breach represents a small fraction of Bitstamp's total Bitcoin reserves, the overwhelming majority of which are held in secure offline cold storage systems.

"We would like to reassure all Bitstamp customers that their balances held prior to our temporary suspension of services will not be affected and will be honoured in full," the statement read.

This breach is not the first time the virtual currency has been stolen in large quantities, with the Mt. Gox, Tokyo-based Bitcoin exchange suffering a major breach in February 2014 in which $409,200,000 (£270,527,568) worth of Bitcoin was lost.