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Customers would not lose money because of the
breach and security would be increased, said Damijan Merlak, one
of Bitstamp's two Slovenian founders.
Bitstamp had suspended its service after the breach resulted in
the loss of around 19,000 bitcoins with a value of some $5
million.
"Trading will resume as soon as the new infrastructure will be
in place and tested. We expect that is likely to happen within
the next 24 hours," Merlak told Reuters in an emailed message on
Wednesday.
"In the future we will strengthen security measures while the
most important thing for clients is that they will suffer no
financial damage as that will be covered by our company," Merlak
added.
He gave no further details of the problem.
Last February, Bitstamp claimed that developers had come up with
a solution to thwart cyber attacks against its platform after
Mt. Gox, once the world's biggest bitcoin exchanges, lost an
estimated $650 million worth of the virtual currency when its
computer system was hacked.
The Bitstamp breach represented a small fraction of its total
bitcoin reserve and the majority was held in secure offline
systems, the Slovenia-based firm posted on its website on
Tuesday. (http://bit.ly/1eTIPEt)
Bitstamp had said it believed one of its wallets, which store
the digital credentials for a customer's bitcoin holdings, had
been compromised.
It had notified all customers after learning of the breach,
requesting them not to make any deposits to previously issued
bitcoin deposit addresses.
Bitcoin, the best-known virtual currency, started circulating in
2009. Unlike conventional money, bitcoin is generated by
computers and is independent of control or backing by any
government.
A bitcoin is currently worth $276.80.
Merlak is one of two Slovenians who founded Bitstamp in 2011.
The company has made its two founders millionaires, according to
the Slovenian media.
(Reporting By Marja Novak; editing by Keith Weir)
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