Mt Gox becomes the first bitcoin exchange to get hacked and losses 20,000 BTC

On June 19, 2011, the Bitcoin community was shaken by a significant security breach at Mt. Gox, the first and largest Bitcoin exchange at the time. Hackers compromised the exchange and executed fraudulent trades that led to the loss of approximately 20,000 BTC.
 

The attack was sophisticated: the hackers gained access to a Mt. Gox auditor’s computer and used the credentials to transfer a large number of bitcoins to themselves. They manipulated the exchange’s price to artificially drop the value of Bitcoin to one cent and then purchased the cheap BTC with their own accounts.
 

This event caused a massive disruption in the Bitcoin market, with the nominal price of Bitcoin on the Mt. Gox exchange plummeting momentarily before the exchange suspended trading and rolled back the fraudulent transactions. The incident exposed the vulnerabilities of cryptocurrency exchanges and the need for improved security measures.
 

The aftermath of the hack was tumultuous for Mt. Gox and its users. Confidence in the exchange and the stability of Bitcoin was severely undermined. It prompted a serious reconsideration of the security practices of bitcoin exchanges and the importance of regulatory oversight to prevent such incidents.