I don't think the coins were the real (final) target of the attackers, therefore is not relevant if they keep them or not, the wound is already done, if the devs do not hardfork the burglars get a lot of money AND control of the coin with such a massive amount, if the devs do fork, the burglars, their associated people and all those that hate VRC for different reasons will permaFUD like it was their last day on earth and try to damage VRC image and bring it down.

So both ways means damaging the coin. Difference is, that most of investors (the ones with a significant piece on grey matter at least) will understand the situation and timing at life of the coin, a hardfork in this situation is not that bad since the coin is just an infant. It set a precedent and blablabla... Not wrong also, and it goes a bit against the spirit of crypto but at this precise point... is not that bad of an option.

Dumped coins will be bought for cheap and the prices will skyrocket, not just because of the collateral-promotion of this happening, but also because the attackers themselves probably caused this so they can get dumped cheap coins.

If you think about it, the attackers get benefit no matter what is the result.

Sad but true, and gotta admit, smart.

Eth.

While I have the utmost respect for Mintpal, I would never fork my coin for one party's loss.

The total loss of 8 Million coins at 39,000 Satoshi is about 312 Bitcoin or about $200,000.

The coins that were stolen were under the control of the exchange.  They are the ultimate responsible parties.  I find it hard to believe that Mintapal is not a multi million dollar entity that can absorb 312 bitcoins.
It sounds like they are passing the damage to the community.  This sets a bad precedent for all altcoins.  Once you change the ledger trust is lost.  Even if it is for good.

Mintpal should put aside a 312 Bitcoin BUY order across multiple sites at the last known trade price.  This would floor the price and Mintpal would then pay back the people who lost their coins.

Judge Crypto

EDIT: It is 312,000 BTC or about 2 Million Dollars...

You left out a decimal. It's actually closer to $2m. This is the type of attack that would lead to either Mintpal shutting down, whales going broke, or a combination of both. And because of that figure, it is obvious to see why both sides are so cooperative to rollback the chain. While this may save holders their money (if this coin doesn't crash immediately upon trading again), this sets a very, very bad precedent in crypto. Because this isn't to save small VRC holders their money, but to save the PnD whales that were involved with this coin (what were 1/3 of the coins doing on a single exchange?). MP just happened to be the exchange caught in the middle.

Your right

Didn't Poloniex do a similar type of repayment for stolen BTC and ended up fully repaying everyone?

Polo did, but I don't think their loss was anywhere near as significant as this one. I saw numbers of $50,000 in relation to POLO, similar in amount to the 1.5 million BC that were stolen from CR (5000-7000 sat at the time), that caused CR to be shut down. Those two were quite small compared to 8 million VRC at 40,000 satoshi...

So the Polo and CR incidents were $50,000 or less, where as this one is around $2 million.

Surestrike causing FUD to get some more coins cheap, looks like we got peoples attention again. No matter how they "play" it

One thing is for sure, You have a lot of potentially new investors out there, as well as some scared investors. We will see how it plays out. With a good outcome to the Fork, I would be shocked to not see a rally back above 40k by end of day. Especially if the dev's have ANY rabbits left up there sleeves....

Do yourself a favor and never involve yourself in anything that involves doing math. You suck at it more than my six year old nephew.