Five cryptocurrency heists that make hack at India's Coinsecure look small

India may have seen one of its biggest cyrptocurrency heists this week, but it pales in comparison to some others that have happened around the world.

Cyrptocurrency exchange Coinsecure said this week that it had lost bitcoins worth around Rs 200 million ($3 million). The police are investigating the case, while the company has promised reimbursements to its customers.

Some of the biggest heists that have happened around the world are in many multiples of Coinsecure’s losses. Five of them, compiled from foreign media reports are as follows: 

Japan's Coincheck Inc reported a $530 million heist (2018)

The company lost cryptocurrency called NEM to a hack. The authorities subsequently said that it would be conducting inspections of such exchanges following the hack. Other cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin suffered a plunge in value which began to reverse after the company said that it would partially reimburse its customers.

Japan's Mt. Gox lost around $480 million (2014)

Another big cryptocurrency exchange in Japan lost around $480 million to a hack in 2014. The company filed for bankruptcy afterward. The losses were also attributed to security flaws at the time 

Hong Kong's Bitfinex hit for over 60 million (2016)

The exchange was known for providing dollar-based trades in bitcoin. The platform reported that more than 100,000 bitcoins belonging to its users had been stolen. It reported the issue to the authorities. The platform is still running, though it continues to be plagued by controversy. 

Italy’s BitGrail hacked for around $170 million (2018)

Unauthorised transactions resulted in the loss of 17 million units of a cryptocurrency called Nano. The total value of losses was $170 million. The price of the Nano fell after news became public. The platform informed authorities and stopped withdrawals and deposits.

Slovenia’s NiceHash loses over $60 million (2017)

Cryptocurrency mining entity NiceHash announced that 4700 bitcoins from a wallet. NiceHash connects people looking to buy or sell computing power which is required for the running of cryptocurrencies. The providers of the computing power were paid in cryptocurrencies. The bitcoins were worth over $60 million at the time.