Hackers have got their hands on $11 billion in stolen cryptocurrency since 2011

More than US$11 billion has been stolen from supposedly secure crypto exchanges, wallets and mining platforms since 2011, mostly due to hacking incidents, research from Inside Bitcoins has revealed.

For a form of currency that bases itself on safety and security, $11 billion is a pretty significant number. Stored on blockchain technology and protected by encryption keys, cryptocurrencies are supposed to be impossible to counterfeit or copy.

In fact, the currency is so secure that when the co-founder and chief of Canadian exchange QuadringaCX Gerald Cotten died last year, it transpired he was the only one with the digital keys to the digital safe where all the coins were kept.

Since then, there have been questions as to whether or not Cotton actually died at all. Lawyers for Quadringa’s investors have even called for his body to be exhumed in order to settle the matter once and for all.

However, it turns out even crypto coins can be half-inched. According to US bitcoin…