Vertcoin (VTC) has reportedly managed to avoid a 2nd 51% attack, attempted by anonymous attackers, which ultimately cost them their own money. 

Specific details regarding the attack was disclosed by Vertcoin’s lead maintainer James Lovejoy on December 2, crypto exchange Bittrex was on the verge of falling victim to an unknown malicious group, with the primary intention to manipulate the Vertcoin blockchain.

Vertcoin has diverted into a separate path from Bitcoin 5 years ago (2014), and underwent a serious hack in December 2018, with the financial damage was approximately $100,000. 

“Based on the market prices during the attack’s preparation and the difficulty of the blocks the attacker produced, we estimate the attacker spent between 0.5-1 BTC to perform the attack,” Lovejoy shared how this time the attackers were able to duplicate their success. 

Ultimately, the hackers suffered net loss, which reportedly falls around 0.06 BTC ($440) and 0.56 BTC ($4,100). 

“The total value of the block rewards the attack received is 13825 VTC (~0.44 BTC). Given the attack was likely not profitable to perform based solely on block rewards, the motivation for the attack is not certain.”

Bittrex has been the primary choice of trading platform for VTC. Following the occurrence of malicious activities, Lovejoy has urged the firm to delay VTC pairs transactions, which contributed greatly to the loss of the hackers.