An ABC employee who tried to earn virtual currency by installing Bitcoin "mining" software on one of the broadcaster's most popular sites has kept his job.

The employee, who had "high-level IT access privileges", was disciplined after placing the unauthorised code on the ABC Grandstand Sports website.

BItcoins ... the untraceable virtual currency that went from boom to bust in six months.

Visitors looking for sports scores or watching videos of a popular match "may have been exposed to the Bitcoin software", the ABC said. The software uses idle computer processing power from computers on a peer-to-peer network, to generate Bitcoins, which can be exchanged for cash.

"The placement of the code was detected by internal ABC checks within 30 minutes and was removed immediately," the ABC wrote recently in response to questions put on notice by Senator Eric Abetz during Senate Estimates in February.