Hong Kong: Hackers stole about 120,000 units of digital currency bitcoin worth US$72 million from the Hong Kong-based exchange platform Bitfinex. This has been creating the tremors in the global bitcoin community as it’s the second-biggest security breach ever on such an exchange.

Bitcoin plunged over 23 percent on Tuesday after the news broke. Bitcoin slumped 5.5 percent against the US dollar on Wednesday in Tokyo. Prices also sank 6.2 percent on Monday, although it was not clear if that initial move was related to the hack. Bitfinex is the world’s largest dollar-based exchange for bitcoin.

Bitfinex announced a tie-up with Palo Alto-based BitGo, which uses multiple-signature security to store user deposits online, allowing for faster withdrawals. The hacker is yet to be identified.

Bitfinex is also known in the digital currency community for liquidity in the US dollar/bitcoin currency pair. Bitfinex has halted trading, withdrawals and deposits after discovering the security breach. The exchange is still investigating into the details and cooperating with law enforcement, but acknowledged some bitcoins were stolen from its users. Bitcoin trading analysts opine that it was a major breach on such a large exchange.

However, Bitcoin has shown its resiliency to these sorts of events in the past. The bitcoin was stolen from users’ segregated wallets. The company said it had reported the theft to law enforcement and was cooperating with top blockchain analytic companies to track the stolen coins.

Bitfinex announced a tie-up with Palo Alto-based BitGo, which uses multiple-signature security to store user deposits online, allowing for faster withdrawals. The hacker is yet to be identified.