<p>Today, most of the largest exchanges <em>are</em> multi-million dollar companies with large budgets, monitored by regulators, etc. There are security protocols in place, such as the majority of Bitcoin being held in cold storage and requiring multiple people to access, which limit the possible extent of a hack.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the small exchanges do still get hacked and shut down. It is one of the reasons why people tend to recommend sticking to the larger exchanges.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-28T06:46:27.830Z
2021-01-28T06:46:27.830Z
ieatpizza
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mt._Gox" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Mt. Gox</a> was a bitcoin exchange based in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.
Launched in July 2010, by 2013 and into 2014 it was handling over 70%
of all bitcoin (BTC) transactions worldwide, as the largest bitcoin
intermediary and the world's leading bitcoin exchange.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>Mt. Gox announced that approximately 850,000 bitcoins belonging to
customers and the company were missing and likely stolen, an amount
valued at more than $450 million at the time</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Today that amount of Bitcoin would be worth nearly $40 billion dollars (depending on the day of the week).</p>
<p>Reading the above makes me concerned. If the world's (once) largest exchange was unable to prevent a hack of this magnitude, how can any exchange (without a multi million dollar <em>security budget</em>) be reasonably certain that hack like this won't effect them?</p>
<p>Is there a consensus (or at least a plausible theory) as to what went wrong on the technical side that allowed such a large exchange to be hacked? What practical lessons can one learn from this story in terms of securing their users funds?</p>

<bitcoin-core><wallet><security><mtgox>
Lessons from the Mt. Gox Hack - 850,000 Bitcoins Stolen
S.O.S
# Lessons from the Mt. Gox Hack - 850,000 Bitcoins Stolen

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-01-28)

> [Mt. Gox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mt._Gox) was a bitcoin exchange based in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.
> Launched in July 2010, by 2013 and into 2014 it was handling over 70%
> of all bitcoin (BTC) transactions worldwide, as the largest bitcoin
> intermediary and the world's leading bitcoin exchange.

> Mt. Gox announced that approximately 850,000 bitcoins belonging to
> customers and the company were missing and likely stolen, an amount
> valued at more than $450 million at the time

Today that amount of Bitcoin would be worth nearly $40 billion dollars (depending on the day of the week).

Reading the above makes me concerned. If the world's (once) largest exchange was unable to prevent a hack of this magnitude, how can any exchange (without a multi million dollar *security budget*) be reasonably certain that hack like this won't effect them?

Is there a consensus (or at least a plausible theory) as to what went wrong on the technical side that allowed such a large exchange to be hacked? What practical lessons can one learn from this story in terms of securing their users funds?

**Tags:** bitcoin-core, wallet, security, mtgox


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2021-01-28. Score: 0

Today, most of the largest exchanges *are* multi-million dollar companies with large budgets, monitored by regulators, etc. There are security protocols in place, such as the majority of Bitcoin being held in cold storage and requiring multiple people to access, which limit the possible extent of a hack.

Meanwhile, the small exchanges do still get hacked and shut down. It is one of the reasons why people tend to recommend sticking to the larger exchanges.


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