‍Bitcoin, invented in 2009, is a series of computer codes that are valued by traders and investors. Many saw a great opportunity to make gains when the digital coins started to skyrocket in value this year – with the current value almost a million times of its initial value. 

For one individual in Puyang in China’s central province of Henan, however, the leaves started to fall off the money tree far too easily.

All of his coins stored in the cyber world disappeared in late July. The victim, surnamed Wu, lost a total of 188.31 bitcoins, valued at over 3.4 million yuan at the time.

The thief was none other than one of his online associates, surnamed Dai. The two met in a social media group for bitcoin investors, with Dai acting as host. 

Dai recommended that Wu keep all his bitcoins in a digital wallet application instead of bitcoin exchanges and he even helped him install the digital wallet on his computer. However, in doing so, Dai understood how to breach the wallet, and was able to find out the user name and password for anyone who logged in.

“I asked, why were my bitcoins all stolen after using the method you taught me to save them?”, said the victim. While Wu was able to get ten coins back from Dai, he still suffered huge losses. 

Dai was considered a suspect after police found out he was a programmer with no fixed source of income. What added to police’s suspicion of him was that his bank account included large amounts of cash deposits after the reported theft. They also found 27 bank cards and multiple computers in Dai’s residence as well as the same digital wallet application that one of the victims was using. Dai denied the charges initially but solid evidence was later found that the app was hacked and would automatically leak passwords to an IP address designated by the suspect.

“The group chat host sent information stating that it was not safe to keep bitcoins on exchanges, and contacted the victims to use the digital wallet he sent. The suspect was then able to steal all the bitcoins and transfer them into his own accounts”, said Officer Zhang Hongzhou from the Henan Zhongyuan Oilfield Public Security Bureau.

Investigations are still underway and police have so far recovered about one tenth of the stolen money.

Bitcoins have been under increasing scrutiny in China as regulators believe the risks involved are too great. China doesn't recognize them as a legitimate currency and the country's three major bitcoin trading platforms have been shut down.