Flexcoin The Bitcoin Bank Shuts Down After a 896 Bitcoins bust
Another Bitcoin site has gone bust, Flexcoin which called itself the Bitcoin bank is out of business.
They posted this on their website:
Flexcoin is shutting down.
On March 2nd 2014 Flexcoin was attacked and robbed of all coins in the hot wallet. The attacker made off with 896 BTC, dividing them into these two addresses:
1NDkevapt4SWYFEmquCDBSf7DLMTNVggdu
1QFcC5JitGwpFKqRDd9QNH3eGN56dCNgy6
As Flexcoin does not have the resources, assets, or otherwise to come back from this loss, we are closing our doors immediately.
Users who put their coins into cold storage will be contacted by Flexcoin and asked to verify their identity. Once identified, cold storage coins will be transferred out free of charge. Cold storage coins were held offline and not within reach of the attacker. All other users will be directed to Flexcoin’s “Terms of service” located at “Flexcoin.com/118.html” a document which was agreed on, upon signing up with Flexcoin.Flexcoin will attempt to work with law enforcement to trace the source of the hack.
Updates will be posted on twitter as soon as they become available.
The story is being covered by a few outlets,
Users who put their coins into cold storage will be contacted by Flexcoin and asked to verify their identity. Once identified, cold storage coins will be transferred out free of charge. Cold storage coins were held offline and not within reach of the attacker. All other users will be directed to Flexcoin’s “Terms of service” located at “Flexcoin.com/118.html” a document which was agreed on, upon signing up with Flexcoin.
Flexcoin will attempt to work with law enforcement to trace the source of the hack.
Updates will be posted on twitter as soon as they become available.
It seems unlikely that this will have much effect on the future of Bitcoin.
The Mt. Gox collapse — which was much bigger — was largely shrugged off by the community, which sees the need to become more sophisticated.
Flexcoin attempted to impose a more conventional banking system over the top of the bitcoin network, enabling instant free transfers between Flexcoin customers while still allowing them to spend money in the wider bitcoin community.
Just six days ago, the company was boasting that it was unscathed by the closure of MtGox, once the world’s largest bitcoin exchange:
Flexcoin tweeted,
We hold zero coins in other companies, exchanges etc. While the MtGox closure is unfortunate, we at Flexcoin have not lost anything.
— flexcoin (@flexcoin) February 25, 2014