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Cryptocurrency Exchanges Coinbase, Bitfinex Down

by Reuters

   Digital currency exchange operators Coinbase and Bitfinex reported
   problems with service through their websites on Tuesday, frustrating
   traders seeking to cash in on the latest surge in the value of bitcoin
   and other cryptocurrencies.

   Wallet-provider Coinbase's website showed "service unavailable" early
   on Tuesday U.S. time, flashing a message that said it was down for
   maintenance. Its exchange gdax.com was still quoting prices, although
   it also said it was experiencing a "minor service outage."

   Bitfinex, another cryptocurrency exchange, tweeted it was under heavy
   distributed denial of service (DDoS) and its application programming
   interface [1]was down.

   DDoS attacks have been common on the internet, using hijacked and
   virus-infected computers to target websites until they can no longer
   cope with the scale of data requested. It was not immediately clear if
   the two incidents were related to any cyberattacks.

   Bitfinex last Thursday tweeted that it had been under significant
   denial of service attack for several days, and that [2]the attack had
   recently worsened.

   Bitcoin exchanges and wallets have a history of being hacked, and
   security experts say they become more vulnerable to cyber-crime as
   valuations rise.

   There have been at least three dozen heists on exchanges that buy and
   sell digital currencies since 2011, including one that led to the 2014
   collapse of Mt. Gox, once the world's largest bitcoin market.

   The latest attack came last Thursday, when a Slovenian cryptocurrency
   mining marketplace, NiceHash, said it lost about $64 million worth of
   bitcoin in a [3]hack of its payment system.

   Bitfinex did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reuters
   was unable to contact Coinbase since the website was down.
   Reporting By Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru; Editing by Martina. D'Couto
   and Patrick Graham.

References

   1. http://bit.ly/2nRS0Xf
   2. http://bit.ly/2nRnqwB
   3. http://reut.rs/2nRozEp