• Taxi driver Chris obsessively checks his phone for updates.
• "I'm prepared to lose almost 2,500 euros (£2,100) in cryptocurrency," he said.

Chris describes himself as "a small crypto owner from Austria" and was one of the many victims of a hacker attack on cryptocurrency exchange Liquid Global last week. The company insisted on paying all customers who lost $100 million (£72.8 million) in the attack. But until they get their money back, many customers are worried.

Every time 38-year-old Chris picks up a customer in his aging Volkswagen, he reminds her of what it is. "My car is over 20 years old, and I can use the money to buy a new, used car," said Chris. "It's not a huge disaster, but it's still a pretty big amount for me. I need at least a year to save that amount."

On the other hand, a 42-year-old Norwegian doctor said that he had difficulty concentrating because he might lose the wealth he had seen over the years. "My fluid balance is 969,000 euros. It is very worrying for me, and my stress is eight out of 10. So I always think about it."

Panic parents

In Sydney, James described the pressure of hacking on his parents, who managed to lose money before the company blocked the transaction.

"My mom and dad have bitcoins there, around 70,000 Australian dollars (£37,000). So that's a lot of money for them. "Stress was being created. At first, they didn't know what was going on; then they had to panic and pull out, which meant they lost about $10,000."

Liquid Global was hacked last week, and it is impossible to get any money back.

On Wednesday, the Japanese company said it was carrying out vital security clearances and wanted to "assure consumers that they will not suffer any harm as a result of the incident." Many customers have complained that if they didn't see the company's tweets or read the news, they weren't notified directly about the hack and wouldn't know about it.

Is Exchange Safe?

Exchanges like Liquid are an essential part of the emerging cryptocurrency world. They are websites that allow people to buy and sell digital coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum, and a place where many people keep their cash for safekeeping.

However, the security of the stock exchange is questionable. Dozens of other hacks against cryptocurrency platforms have stolen at least £1.6 billion by hackers since 2014.

The biggest hack for cryptocurrency

• BitGrail: $146 million hacked by Italian stock exchanges in 2018. An estimated 230,000 BitGrail users have lost money.
• KuCoin: $281 million was stolen by suspected North Korean hackers in the Seychelles exchange in 2020. The company gets most of its funds and funds back from customers.
• MtGox: $450 million, mostly bitcoin, hacked in 2014, smashing the Japanese stock market. Not a single customer has been restored yet.
• Coincheck: $534 million stolen from Japanese exchange in 2018. In the end, the customer was recovered.
• Poly Network: $610 million hacked into coins from a Chinese platform earlier this month. Hackers returned all funds, and customers started to recover.