Dogecoin wallet goes offline, possible hack underway
As Dogevault's website becomes unavailable, users of the popular wallet report mysterious withdrawals of hundreds of thousands of the virtual currency from their accounts.
A massive Dogecoin heist could be in the works. The popular online wallet Dogevault -- where Dogecoin owners can store their virtual currency -- has gone missing.
"We apologise for the downtime, a press release will be posted here within 24 hours," the Dogevault website currently reads. "Please do not transfer any funds to Dogevault addresses while our investigation is under way."
According to The Cryptocurrency Times, several Dogevault users reported Dogecoin withdrawals from their accounts right before the website went offline. One user told the news site that a massive 950,000 Dogecoin was taken from his wallet. Some of this missing digital currency has apparently resurfaced in another online wallet that contains millions of Dogecoin.
The Cryptocurrency Times speculates that the disappearing and reappearing digital currency points to a possible widespread hack of Dogevault, which may result in one of the biggest Dogecoin thefts in history.
Dogevault wouldn't be the first cryptocurrency-related company to experience a robbery-based hack. The prominent Tokyo-based Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy earlier this year after hackers nabbed nearly $500 million in bitcoins through a weakness in the company's system. Bitcoin bank Flexcoin also had to shut down in March after being hacked. Even another Dogecoin wallet, Dogewallet, was hacked in December and more than $16,000 in the virtual currency was stolen.
Update: Dogevault announced Tuesday that its online wallet service was indeed "compromised by attackers, resulting in a service disruption and tampering with wallet funds." The service was immediately halted but the "attackers had already accessed and destroyed all data on the hosted virtual machines." The company is currently identifying the extent of the attack and will notify users of its findings within the next two days.
Updated May 13 at 2:35 p.m. PT with the latest information from Dogevault.