The Slovenian bitcoin mining marketplace NiceHash has been hacked and around $64 MILLION in bitcoin has been stolen. The marketplace has shut down while it investigates the breach and is urging its users to change their passwords immediately.

The attack has been described as highly professional, meaning this is not the work of some stoner in his bedroom, working on a laptop. Around 4700 bitcoins were stolen, which equates to around $64 million USD.

Bitcoin has had an incredible year; prices of bitcoin have surged massively during 2016/17, reaching amazing highs as investors look for value investments outside the traditional currency channels.

“The price of bitcoin has surged to more than $14,668,” notes The Guardian, “gaining around $2,000 (£1,494) of value in a day according to bitcoin monitor CoinDesk. That compares with a value below $1,000 at the beginning of the year.”

The nature of how bitcoin works is highly controversial; it’s digital and, unlike money, is not regulated in most markets like traditional currency and currency trades. And because of its digital nature, it is now a prime target for hackers.

Top this off with the insane price of bitcoin right now and you have a heady mix of factors that make for plenty of action inside the most popular cryptocurrency market on the planet. How popular is bitcoin these days? According to reports, bitcoin mining now consumes more electricity than the whole of Ireland.

Yep. That’s a lot of mining.

Interested in bitcoin? You should be, it’s one hell of a technology and investment opportunity. Be warned, though: it’s very esoteric and rather confusing; no one just goes out and buys bitcoin – there’s a pretty steep learning curve.

But A LOT of people have made A LOT of money from Bitcoin. And there’s plenty of volatility left in the game, even more so after incidents like this breach.

(edit: we messed up; it was "million" not "billion" – sorry!)