Data leak from bankrupt Mt. Gox crypto exchange includes thousands of Dutch victims
Thousands of people based in the Netherlands who lost their cryptocurrency savings with the Mt. Gox exchange have also lost control of their personal data. A data file including their names and the amount of bitcoin they had in their exchange wallets has since been leaked on various websites, said Eline Ronner, who produced the BNR podcast, De koude crypto-oorlog.
Ronner’s name was among those leaked. The data file included over 2,000 names, including Dutch entrepreneurs, journalists, people with a criminal past, and their cryptocurrency holdings, BNR reported. "Download links to the data files are open and exposed on Reddit and pastebin, and elsewhere," Ronner said.
The Japanese exchange, Mt. Gox, folded in 2014 after several years where bitcoin amounts were stolen from the exchange’s available wallet. At its peak, the company was handling more than two-thirds of all bitcoin trades Initially, it was reported that about 850,000 bitcoins disappeared from the company's holdings, including 750,000 owned by its clients.
That was worth over 345 million euros at the time. Today, the value would be close to 21.3 billion euros. Eventually, the exchange discovered 100,000 of the missing bitcoins in an old wallet.
"Very soon after the fall of MtGox, parts of the exchange's database leaked and they can still be found on the web," Ronner said. The podcast aims to track down some of the missing cryptocurrency, and leaked documents from the company show that the company was likely bankrupt already before 2014, Ronner said.
"The lion's share of the missing bitcoins were captured as a result of one hack. Thieves were then able to steal relatively small portions of bitcoins for years without anyone at MtGox noticing." The company’s former owner, Mark Karpeles, did not likely embezzle the money, but should be blamed for mismanagement, Ronner continued.
“This might make it the greatest bitcoin heist of all time.”
About 23,000 clients filed a claim with administrators to recover their missing funds. The trustee said that only a fifth of the total claim can be paid out, which equates to roughly four billion euros, BNR reported. Those victims in the Netherlands will only receive a payment if they registered with the appointed receiver, Ronner stated.
