INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Around 438 bitcoins were siphoned off to an unknown destination on the internet, said Coinsecure.New Delhi: Coinsecure, an Indian
cryptocurrency exchange, said nearly $3 million or Rs 19,57,05,000 were stolen from its bitcoin wallet, the biggest reported so far in the
country's fledgling virtual currency market.The theft is expected to further weaken trade in cryptocurrencies, which the government has
likened to "Ponzi schemes" that offer unusually high returns to early investors.Coinsecure, which has over 200,000 users trading on its
platform daily, said that around 438 bitcoins, which were stored in a password-protected virtual wallet were siphoned off to an unknown
destination on the internet after the details were leaked online."We regret to inform you that our bitcoin funds have been exposed and seem
to have been siphoned out to an address that is outside our control," the company said in a statement posted on its website.Legal experts
said there was a need to regulate the virtual currency market, instead of imposing restrictions on its trade.(: Bitcoin Price Soars 11% To
Two-Week High)"It is for reasons like these that there is a need to regulate crypto-exchanges," said Anirudh Rastogi, founder and managing
partner at TRA Law, a firm that specialises in emerging-technology businesses."Pushing the exchange business out from the formal economy to
the informal cash economy to operate under the radar will worsen the problem, not solve it," Rastogi said.Coinsecure said it would
compensate customers for losses from its existing funds.Bitcoins were trading at Rs 4,80,000 or about $7,359 on Friday, according to
cryptocurrency exchange Coinome, well below its international market price of about $7,771.The Reserve Bank of India has already dealt a
blow to the crytocurrency exchanges, barring banks from facilitating trade on virtual currencies and mandating them to unwind their existing
relationship with exchanges within three months.Elsewhere in Asia, Vietnam and South Korea have also suffered millions of dollars worth of
fraud and embezzlement in some of the cryptocurrency businesses
