Just a week after one of bitcoin's major exchanges, Mt. Gox, went offline -- and then filed for bankruptcy on Friday -- a bitcoin bank was forced to close after hackers stole 896 bitcoins, worth over $600,000, in an attack on Sunday.
The bitcoin bank Flexcoin posted a note on its site stating: "On March 2, 2014 Flexcoin was attacked and robbed of all coins in the hot wallet...As Flexcoin does not have the resources, assets, or otherwise to come back from this loss, we are closing our doors immediately."
The term "hot wallet" refers to bitcoins stored in an online wallet connected to the internet.
Last week, Mt. Gox blamed hackers for stealing an estimated $480 million worth of bitcoins, due to what it called a weakness in its system. The company opted for "bankruptcy protection" in Japan on Friday.
Flexcoin emphasized that not all was lost for those users who had put their bitcoins into "cold storage," meaning coins held offline and not "within reach of the attacker."
"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," Flexcoin's note read.
"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."
