AllCrypt Bitcoin Scrypt (BTCS) Theft

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AllCrypt Homepage/Logo

The AllCrypt platform offered a wide range of currencies including Bitcoin Scrypt (BTCS). On March 21st, 2014, a hacker managed to steal over 55,000 BTCS. Unfortunately for the thief, they transferred them to the MintPal platform, and MintPal cooperated to help return them to AllCrypt. Only 3 users were affected on the AllCrypt platform, and all received a portion of their funds back.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150324203953/https://www.allcrypt.com/blog/2014/03/hack-update-2-what-the-hell-actually-happened/

https://web.archive.org/web/20150324203951/https://www.allcrypt.com/blog/2014/03/post-hack-update-and-statement/

About AllCrypt

The AllCrypt platform offered a wide range of currencies including Bitcoin Scrypt.

US. Maryland. <- The Hack The Resolution

About Bitcoin Scrypt

"[T]he BTCS decentralized blockchain network continues to run uninterrupted from its genesis block created on September 8, 2013, and is one of the most mature blockchain networks still mining blocks."

About:

The Reality

Every withdrawal interface creates an opportunity for exploits to occur, and therefore platforms must be vigilant against a withdrawal on every supported blockchain.

What Happened

A large number of Bitcoin Scrypt (BTCS) tokens were taken from the AllCrypt platform.

Key Event Timeline - AllCrypt Bitcoin Scrypt (BTCS) Theft

Date	Event	Description
March 11th, 2014	Insufficient Funds Panic	A blog post narrates a small bug incident at AllCrypt.com, where a minor error in the system led to the failure of a BTC withdrawal. The post describes the panic and confusion of the staff upon discovering the issue, followed by their investigation into the cause. It turns out that the bug stemmed from a rounding issue in the trade execution process, affecting a few user accounts. Despite having sufficient funds in the wallet, withdrawals failed due to this discrepancy. The revelation comes when they realize the potential of using user accounts in crypto wallets as an additional security measure, which could prevent similar incidents on other exchanges. The post concludes with a plea for other exchanges to consider implementing this extra layer of security to safeguard against potential vulnerabilities.
March 21st, 2014	Post On Security And Hacking	A generic blog post is made about security and hacking. The post begins by discussing their hesitation in mentioning other exchanges by name in various platforms, opting for a peaceful coexistence approach. However, recent events on CoinEx.pw prompt them to break their silence. The author recounts their personal connection with CoinEx and their journey towards creating AllCrypt.com. They express disappointment in the lack of transparency and accountability following CoinEx's hack, contrasting it with the commendable response of exchanges like Poloniex. The author then delves into the security measures implemented at AllCrypt.com, highlighting their approach to safeguarding user funds. They criticize exchanges that boast being "hack-proof" without substantial evidence, emphasizing the importance of honesty and transparency in the cryptocurrency space. The post serves as a call for greater integrity and diligence in exchange operations, urging for truthful representations of security measures rather than misleading claims.
March 21st, 2014	Theft Event	Theft happens.
March 24th, 2015 2:39:44 PM MDT	Resolution Post Archived	A capture is taken of the

Technical Details

Bitcoin Scrypt is a fork of the bitcoin blockchain which implements the Scrypt algorithm, which is more resistant against ASICs.

Total Amount Lost

At least 55,685.92170221 BTCS were stolen on Friday the 21st.

The losses reportedly came from three user accounts on the AllCrypt platform.

The total amount lost has been estimated at $2,000 USD.

Immediate Reactions

"We don’t want to leave anyone hanging, so here’s a brief update. We believe we found what truly happened, but are looking at every log we have to be 100% sure. If it WAS that, then it’s a simple fix to make sure it doesnt happen again. But we want to be beyond absolutely sure before we reopen.

Working hard to shore this up and fix the damage done. Full updates will be posted within a few hours."

Shortly after we posted the first blog entry including the address the BTCS was withdrawn to, we were contacted by Jay of MintPal via twitter (tweet since deleted, I think to keep the info quiet) and submitted a ticket on our support system. He told us that he saw the blog post and out of curiosity, he checked their system. The address the coins were sent to was a MintPal address. The users account was locked down pending investigation.

Ultimate Outcome

"I’m happy to report that we have recovered 55,685.92170221 BTCS that were stolen on Friday the 21st. And can now relate the rest of the story.

Emails flew back and forth. Apparently the thief claimed that he did a normal withdrawal from his AllCrypt.com account and didn’t know why we were picking on him. MintPal wanted to be thorough and make sure my story was true and that he wasn’t accidentally screwing up his own user’s account.

AllCrypt provided logs, and we verified IP addresses and email addresses used by the thief. MintPal confirmed it was the same on their site. We signed messages using the sending BTCS addresses in question to verify we owned the address the coins came from. The thief said that he could prove that it was a valid transfer. How, I’ve no idea, because the coins were stolen from three different accounts. He was given a deadline which came and went.

In the meantime, AllCrypt.com relaunched. We were contacted on Sunday by a user who claimed to have found a vulnerability in our system (here’s the vulnerability he found: If you append garbage to the market?id= string on the market pages, some of that data appears in the backto= link that is used to send you back to the page you were on after logging in. HTML tags are stripped and all funny characters are escaped, so do it all you want – it just makes a broken link. Actually – don’t. You’re going to eventually type something that gets your IP banned).

Anyway, assuming it to be someone trying to be helpful and them not realizing we increased our security, I replied and told him that it’s a non issue.

He then said that we should reward him. What? No. I told him to piss off. He then threatened to sell the information to “other russians” and proceeded to try to extort a “reward”. Then to prove his point that he “found data” he quoted something he “just found” – information that no longer existed. Stuff he saw on Friday when he hacked the site. Stuff that, while we were down, we changed, renamed, moved, and tightened security on. In other words – on Sunday when we relaunched, the information did not exist anymore. So the only way he could have seen it was to have seen it Friday. The [hacker] came back and was now trying extortion.

The thief told the MintPal devs that the coins had come from a BTCS address here at AllCrypt. In fact, the address is attached to the account the thief made here. And that account had never received or sent a single coin. Apparently, the guy is an imbecile and is too stupid to realize that’s a simple check (Oh, yes, I am intentionally being inflammatory).

More emails between us and MintPal, and the devs over there became convinced he was the thief. They returned what was left that the thief had not already moved out of MintPal -55,685.92170221 BTCS.

We want to thank Jay and Jason at MintPal for their honesty and integrity in helping resolve this situation. They went above and beyond (including enduring my barrage of harassing emails while their servers were experiencing issues – a fact I was not aware of while I was pestering them) in helping bring this to a positive resolution. Unfortunately, due to laws in the country they operate (I honestly don’t know where they are based) they could not divulge information they have on the thief."

Total Amount Recovered

The amount returned was "what was left that the thief had not already moved out of MintPal", a sum of -55,685.92170221 Bitcoin Scrypt (BTCS).

The total amount recovered has been estimated at $2,000 USD.

Ongoing Developments

What parts of this case are still remaining to be concluded?

Individual Prevention Policies

No specific policies for individual prevention have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as an individual, check our Prevention Policies for Individuals guide.

Platform Prevention Policies

Policies for platforms to take to prevent this situation have not yet been selected in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as a financial service, check our Prevention Policies for Platforms guide.

Regulatory Prevention Policies

No specific regulatory policies have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of regulatory policies that can prevent loss, check our Prevention Policies for Regulators guide.