Cryptocurrency exchange places $250,000 bounty on hackers' heads

Binance pledges reward to anyone who delivers information about the would-be bandits that leads to their arrests

Binance, the China-based cryptocurrency exchange that was targeted by a failed heist last week, has placed a $250,000 (£179,000) bounty on the heads of the cyber-criminals responsible.

The failed raid saw the would-be thieves - still unidentified - using a phishing scam to acquire coin traders' login details before generating API keys to access their accounts, buying large quantities of viacoin and then attempting to exchange that suddenly-inflated currency for bitcoin.

It was at this point that the site's moderators noticed the suspicious activity and stepped in to block the transactions, preventing any money from being stolen.

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"To ensure a safe crypto community, we can’t simply play defence," Binance said in a statement.

"We need to actively prevent any instances of hacking before they occur, as well as follow through after-the-fact.

"The first person to supply substantial information and evidence that leads to the legal arrest of the hackers, in any jurisdiction, will receive the equivalent of $250,000 in binance coin.”

The company also said that it had put aside $10bn (£7.2bn) for future bounties and said it had invited fellow crypto-businesses to follow suit.

The fledgling cryptocurrency market - unregulated, decentralised and offering little consumer protection - has often been likened to the Wild West by its critics.

This is very much a 21st century "Wanted" poster.