Coinsecure Offers Rs 2 Crore Bounty For Help To Recover Stolen Bitcoins

Coinsecure that reportedly lost nearly $3 million worth bitcoins (around Rs 20 crore in Indian currency) announced a bounty of 10% for any help towards the recovery of the stolen bitcoins. "We are happy to issue a bounty of 10% to the community for help rendered for recovery of BTC," reads the company statement. As the total value of stolen bitcoins is nearly Rs 20 crore, its 10% would amount to Rs 2 crore.

Coinsecure, on Friday, said that around 438 bitcoins, which were stored in a password-protected virtual wallet were siphoned off to an unknown destination on the internet after the details were leaked online.

The bitcoins that have been compromised are 438.31859715 in number.

Though coinsecure admits that it is working with investigation authorities and others, but it said that any help in this matter will be highly appreciated.

Coinsecure has over 200,000 users trading on its platform daily.

"We regret to inform you that our bitcoin funds have been exposed and seem to have been siphoned out to an address that is outside our control," the company said in a statement posted on its website.

Legal experts said there was a need to regulate the virtual currency market, instead of imposing restrictions on its trade.

"It is for reasons like these that there is a need to regulate crypto-exchanges," said Anirudh Rastogi, founder and managing partner at TRA Law, a firm that specialises in emerging-technology businesses.

"Pushing the exchange business out from the formal economy to the informal cash economy to operate under the radar will worsen the problem, not solve it," Rastogi said.

With Reuters inputs