NZ Police: Cryptopia Case Will Take Long Time to Solve

Police in New Zealand issued an update on their investigation into the hack on cryptocurrency Exchange Exchange An exchange is known as a marketplace that supports the trading of derivatives, commodities, securities, and other financial instruments.Generally, an exchange is accessible through a digital platform or sometimes at a tangible address where investors organize to perform trading. Among the chief responsibilities of an exchange would be to uphold honest and fair-trading practices. These are instrumental in making sure that the distribution of supported security rates on that exchange are effectiv An exchange is known as a marketplace that supports the trading of derivatives, commodities, securities, and other financial instruments.Generally, an exchange is accessible through a digital platform or sometimes at a tangible address where investors organize to perform trading. Among the chief responsibilities of an exchange would be to uphold honest and fair-trading practices. These are instrumental in making sure that the distribution of supported security rates on that exchange are effectiv Read this Term Cryptopia this Thursday. A statement released by the New Zealand Police Media Centre said that they were making positive progress in the case.

According to that statement, the case is "advancing on several fronts," though authorities did not provide specific details on to how close they are to catching the thieves.

The police did say that they expect to finish working at Cryptopia's offices, which are located in Christchurch, by the end of next week. Cryptopia staff, as well as former employees of the cryptocurrency exchange, are helping police on the case.

Currently, police are tracking the stolen funds and are working with other police forces across the globe and cybersecurity experts in New Zealand.

"The focus is on identifying those behind this offending and retrieving the stolen cryptocurrency," said Detective Inspector Greg Murton. "This is a complex investigation involving the theft of cryptocurrency in an unregulated environment. This investigation is expected to take a considerable amount of time to resolve due to the complexity of the cyber environment."

Two hacks on Cryptopia

An initial hack on Cryptopia took place in the middle of January. That attack saw the hacker(s) make off with $16 million in Ethereum Ethereum Ethereum is an open source, blockchain-based distributed computing platform and operating system featuring smart contract functionality. Created in 2014, Ethereum now stands as the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap at the time of writing.As a decentralized cryptocurrency network and software platform, Ethereum represents the most prominent altcoin. Ethereum also enables the creation Distributed Applications, or dapps. Understanding EthereumEthereum boasts its own programming language, Ethereum is an open source, blockchain-based distributed computing platform and operating system featuring smart contract functionality. Created in 2014, Ethereum now stands as the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap at the time of writing.As a decentralized cryptocurrency network and software platform, Ethereum represents the most prominent altcoin. Ethereum also enables the creation Distributed Applications, or dapps. Understanding EthereumEthereum boasts its own programming language, Read this Term.

Just two weeks later, on January 30, rumors surfaced that the hackers had struck again. New Zealand police have since said that a second attack did not take place but, as is common in the gossipy world of cryptocurrency, that hasn't put all of those rumors to rest.

Though their comments may suggest otherwise, it's difficult to see how police will be able to catch the thief behind the attack. A lack of people familiar with the underlying technology which supports cryptocurrency transactions, as well as the anonymity which cloaks those transactions, makes connecting an individual to a set of cryptocurrency holdings difficult.