Cryptocurrency investors may face a harsh reality later

2017 saw a bumper crop of events in the cryptocurrency arena. It looks set to continue in 2018 as the year started with the world's biggest cryptocurrency theft of US$534 million at Coincheck Tokyo, one of Asia's biggest digital currency exchanges. Singapore is not spared the hype, having become a hotbed for cryptocurrency startups, and with its electronic hubs, information technology (IT) fairs, even computer shops, now peddling fully-assembled crypto-mining kits to eager buyers.

The cryptocurrency arena is confusing at best, but the situation seems to be going from bad to worse as the misfortunes have spread far and wide.

In February 2017, attackers broke into a home computer belonging to an employee of South Korean exchange Bithumb, one of the world's busiest exchanges for bitcoin and ethereum. The personal details of more than 30,000 of Bithumb's customers were compromised.