Exchanges Suspend BSV Deposits and Withdrawals Following 51% Network Attack

Exchanges are suspending Bitcoin SV (BSV) following double-spending attacks registered on the coin’s network.

According to a blog post, developers of the BSV network identified a wallet address that was linked with a history of illegal activities, such as ransomware. The attacker tried to mask double-spending of coins by causing block re-organisation attacks – which usually occurs when miners work together to remove previously confirmed blocks from the blockchain.

A malicious actor has recently been carrying out block re-organisation attacks on the Bitcoin SV network, which appear to be intentional acts in an effort to mask the illegal double-spending of coins.

Bitcoin Association blog post

According to analyst Lyn Alden, forked networks like Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV are susceptible to these types of attacks as BSV has only 0.5 percent of Bitcoin’s hash rate.

Rough Year for BSV

BTC-forked blockchains have suffered from the same vulnerability since they were created. Ironically, the coins were made with the intention to shore up the vulnerability of the main network. Allegedly, developers have tried to contact law enforcement to take legal action against the hackers.

Bitcoin Association intends to file reports with appropriate law enforcement authorities and work with affected parties to pursue all available legal remedies. Since first identifying the malicious activity, the Bitcoin SV Infrastructure Team has collected and documented relevant data to provide to appropriate authorities.

Bitcoin Association blog post

As previously reported, Australian exchange Independent Reserve delisted BSV on January 28 after considering the actions of Australian computer scientist Craig Wright as anti-ethical – something echoed by many in the Aussie crypto community.

Following a lawsuit filed by Wright earlier this year, the London High Court granted default judgment for copyright infringement against “Cøbra”, the pseudonymous operator and publisher of the bitcoin.org website.