Bitcoin Cash SIM Hack Rumor Sparks Online Debate

A new story about an alleged crypto SIM hack is making its rounds across the internet, and it seems to be sparking more conspiracy theories than facts. The story in question comes from a now-deleted post on Internet forum Reddit, where it was explained that a Chinese cryptocurrency investor lost up to $30 million in Bitcoin Cash and $14.4 million in Bitcoin. 

Online Sources Pick Up an unverified Story 

The original report explained that the investor’s SIM card was hacked, and the alleged victim decided to beg BCH miners to help track the transactions. The post was deleted not long after it was originally published. Unfortunately, the internet never forgets. The post was picked up by Dovey Wan, a Chinese blockchain insider and head of Primitive Ventures.  

In a series of tweets, Wan explained pretty much what was in the Reddit post, inclusive of her opinions on the matter. She confirmed that keeping so much in cryptocurrency was a “stupid move “in the first place, while also adding details in real-time that the hacker seemed to have been moving the money stolen into a mixer to conceal their identity and the source of their funds. 

BREAKING

1M $BCH sim hack!! worth $30M from 1 single Chinese whale (he claimed lost $15M $BTC too) He's now asking for help from miners ..I'm talking with top BCH pool owners on this OMFG

😱😱😱

BCH address :qzumak2rvxksjgkjuxe2fe5jxatktlsnhy5sthr5p7

THIS IS REALLY BRUTAL pic.twitter.com/19XM3w5BL7

— Dovey "Rug the fiat" Wan (hiring) (@DoveyWan) February 22, 2020

Wan also pointed out that the victim seemed to have been Josh Jones, the founder of Bitcoin Builder, a service with close affiliations to hacked crypto exchange Mt. Gox. Bitcoin Builder came into prominence around the same time that Mt. Gox imploded, as it provided a means for the exchange’s users to trade the Bitcoins in their Bitcoin account despite the freeze put on the exchange’s funds. 

The service also created an arbitrage trading arm for users to take advantage of the spread between Mt. Gox and other exchanges. Traders on bitcoin Builder could sell the Bitcoins in their Mt. Gox accounts on the Bitcoin Builder marketplace, thus taking advantage of the exchange’s temporary freeze to make money. However, it would seem that the service didn’t operate for long, as Mt. Gox never came back from that infamous hack. 

Bitcoin Cash Takes a Slight Downturn

Regardless, it’s currently impossible to find out if Jones was the victim of the hack. His Twitter account hasn’t had a tweet since August 2019, and while a lot of industry news outlets have already picked up on the story, none has been able to verify anything concrete. As for Bitcoin Cash, the asset’s price has taken a tumble over the past 24 hours. It’s trading at $386.36, down 1.7 percent on the day after crossing the $400 threshold for the first time in about a week. 

It’s still unknown whether the drop was caused by panic over the alleged hack, as the entire crypto market seems to be having a rough day- of the top crypto assets by market cap, only Tether has managed to be trading up on the day, with a paltry 0.3 percent increase in the period.