As if the year had not been difficult enough already for the wider Bitcoin ecosystem, September brought the news that Blink Wallet – one of the projects most faithful to Bitcoin’s original spirit mission – had become the latest victim in a wave of exploits hitting the industry.
This one hit especially hard. The Blink team has stood out for its ethics and its commitment to support Bitcoin communities far and wide around the world.
Rather than grifting, the team has been laser-focused on building tools for parts of the world where Bitcoin can have the most positive impact. Its strong focus on the Global South reflects that mission: reaching people with limited access to sound money and giving them simple tools to start using Bitcoin.
People for whom Bitcoin can make a real difference – helping them gain greater control over their savings and keep their money mobile, beyond the constraints of unreliable financial institutions and poor monetary options that will make their financial reserves vanish, one way or another. People for whom Bitcoin means more than another asset in an investment portfolio.
Stealing significant funds from such a project is especially despicable. We condemn malicious hacking and related cybercrime across the board, but attacking a team working to bring useful financial tools to underserved communities adds another layer of extreme ugliness.
As such, we endorse and support the Blink team’s call to track down and bring the threat actor to justice by all available means. To build a credible deterrent, the industry must impose severe costs on threat actors to change their calculation.
If it’s easy to rob you and get away with it, you will have more robberies. It is our duty as an industry to give no quarter when it comes to dealing with threat actors who destroy the livelihoods of potentially hundreds of families for their own personal benefit.
If a robbery does demonstrably result in severe consequences for the perpetrator, people will think twice before engaging in criminal activity.
The Hack: Post-Mortem and Impact on Blink Users
If you are interested in the technical details of the hack and its impact on Blink’s user base, the team published a detailed post-mortem at the end of last week.
According to Blink’s published account, every affected balance has since been restored in full, with shareholders stepping in to cover the shortfall. Customers have not been left to absorb the financial loss.
This is especially remarkable given that a business like Blink is in the sector to improve its users’ lives – unlike most “crypto apps”, which exist solely to extract value from their user base.
As such, the Blink team operates on a very tight budget and thin margins – there are no huge “insurance funds” bankrolled by degenerate gamblers that can easily cover incidents such as these.
The backers of Team Blink – including staff members of the team itself – believe in the mission and without hesitation stepped in to fill the gap so that the work could continue.
Taking responsibility for the damage and making customers whole is what we should expect from any business entrusted with other people’s money.
The bounty hunt – a collective call to action
Blink has announced a 50% recovery bounty on the approximately 6.61 BTC stolen in the attack – around 3.3 BTC if the full amount is recovered. The offer is split into two parts: 25% of recovered funds goes to whoever provides information directly leading to their recovery, representing approximately 1.65 BTC if everything is returned.
Another 25% of recovered funds will support Bitcoin Beach, Bitcoin Ekasi, Afribit Kibera and other Bitcoin circular economies they jointly select in the Global South. The team’s message is clear: the attacker took resources that Blink and its backers would much rather have put towards grassroots Bitcoin adoption. Any successful recovery will now help fund that work.
The bounty has no fixed end date, and partial recoveries qualify. Information does not need to identify the attacker, but it must directly lead to funds being returned to Blink for a reward to become payable. Anyone with relevant information can contact [email protected], using [BOUNTY] in the subject line. Participation is subject to Blink’s published bounty terms, which require lawful methods and prohibit contacting, threatening or confronting the perpetrator.
For the latest updates on the case and the bounty, follow Blink on X and check the updates section of their original post.
Disclosure and a Personal Word by BitcoinVN
As previously disclosed, BitcoinVN has been an investor and shareholder in Blink since Lukas Duczko, its Chairman of the Board, took over the project and shared his vision for the firm with us.
As such, when called upon to help make customers whole, our team decided to do our part.
In BitcoinVN’s twelve-year history, no customer has been left out of pocket over funds entrusted to us – and in this case, we also stepped in to help a company we had invested in to restore its customers’ balances.
With that said:
We are a small, self-funded firm originally built in Vietnam (due to changing regulatory requirements, we have since moved most of our operations offshore, although our online BitcoinVN Shop remains active in the country and our firm’s DNA still carries a strong Vietnamese influence, as we have worked to retain as many of our loyal team members as possible over the years – people who have helped make the firm what it is today and uphold its spotless reputation for a decade and counting).
It is our very own money we put up here to do our part to make Blink users whole.
However:
We do not sit on an unlimited pile of money. We are not a central bank with a money printer in our basement.
Please do not assume that we will backstop each and every firm we have invested in without limit – you still need to conduct your own risk assessments and build your own cyberdefense capabilities.
And furthermore, if you believe that BitcoinVN is an easy place to tap for money and then expect us to pick up the bill when things go wrong – you’re in the wrong place.
We’re not amateurs, and we have survived longer than most in this space. We’ve taken our share of beatings and have the scars to show for it, but we have always come through and served our user base relentlessly and reliably.
The reason we decided to step in here is that we have had a close working relationship with Team Blink – and more importantly: the people behind Blink – for many years. We know what their core team members value and what they have sacrificed in pursuit of their mission – and when times get tough, stepping in is what friends and supporters do.
BitcoinVN – pathway into 2027 and general advice for users
And as a further word on our “closed pockets”: aside from the costs involved in adjusting our regulatory posture to the changing landscape in Vietnam – previously one of the most active markets in the world – we are not currently considering further investments in other businesses, as our team is reinvesting heavily in our own infrastructure (including further security hardening) and product launches.
More to come on this front soon – we’ll also share selected details in public announcements here on this page.
There is no surplus capital, as we have more than enough opportunities to grow businesses under our own control, alongside team members and associates we know and trust.
While in prior years we invested in various related businesses, including those of our partners and peers, we simply need our available capital ourselves to make things happen at this point in our journey – and we have a very clear vision and concrete next steps ahead of us.
On the other hand, if you have capital to invest, have been following us for a while and feel generally aligned with our mission, feel free to get in touch. However, be aware that you will go through an extended vetting process before we decide to commit to doing business with you.
And a final word – one that matters most to you personally:
If you decide to be active in Bitcoin specifically or the wider digital asset space generally, with your own money at stake, you must invest in your own defense and cybersecurity posture – one way or another.
This is not optional.
Threats evolve rapidly, and successful attack methods and schemes proliferate faster than ever around the world – from classic cyberattacks and ever more sophisticated social engineering to, in the worst cases, violent attacks on identified crypto holders.
If you want to keep your coins, you must be aware that you participate in an arms race – and if you’re not willing to keep up constantly, you probably shouldn’t join in the first place.
A traditional bank or professional wealth manager may be a better fit for you – for a fee and/or at the cost of your financial sovereignty – and we fully respect that choice.
Bitcoin – while open to anyone – is certainly not for everyone.
If you do, however, want to pursue the path of financial sovereignty, you can, as a starting point, read our analysis of current threats targeting individuals and organisations in the space for free – or consider hiring our cybersecurity consulting team for a personalised assessment and practical help strengthening your security setup.
And last but not least, if you are based in Vietnam:
Our colleagues at BitcoinVN Shop have the latest hardware wallet models available – genuine imports from a range of manufacturers to help you build your own multi-vendor multisig setup.
And to keep in line with our general security advice:
You can procure them directly from our pick-up points at our Saigon headquarters or our Da Nang showroom – without registering on our website or providing a home delivery address.
Data that are not tracked, can’t be hacked – and minimizing the personal data you enter into various databases must be part of your personal security measures if you want to avoid becoming a target for violent criminals down the road.
Stay safe.
