TL;DR Breakdown:
- Bitmart exchange was hacked for $150 million worth of crypto.
- 48 tokens across the platforms Ethereum and BSC hot wallets were affected.
- All withdrawals on Bitmark is suspended until further notice.
Popular crypto exchange BItmart has suffered a massive security breach on Saturday. The company’s CEO confirmed that hackers got away with $150 million worth of crypto. The hackers targeted the Ethereum and BSC hot wallets of Bitmart and withdrew large amounts of 48 different tokens, including SHIB, MANA, BNB, BUSD, Safemoon, Floki, BabyDoge, GMEX and others.
The hack was first identified by cybersecurity analysis firm Peckshield on Twitter. Peckshield spotted a steady outflow of massive token balances from a certain Bitmart address. The address is now marked as “Bitmart Hacker” on Etherscan.
Initially, the company denied the claim and called it “fake news”, as several users contacted their support for clarification. However, the hack was later confirmed by Sheldon Xia, the company’s CEO on Twitter. As a response to the hack, Bitmart has suspended all withdrawals until further notice, as the platform investigates the proceedings of this security breach.
The Bitmart hack will increase concerns in the crypto security space
The scale of this hack makes it one of the largest crypto hacks to date. However, it wasn’t the only reported hack this week. Earlier this week, the DeFi wallet BadgerDAO suffered a $10 million hack, which caused its native token to plummet below 15%.
Earlier this month, Binance faced issues with DogeCoin withdrawal as user accounts were being suspended for withdrawal requests they didn’t authorize. Although it wasn’t a security breach, it adds to the growing complexity facing crypto exchanges.
In the Bitmart hack, the hacker used DEX aggregator 1inch to swap the stolen coins for ETH. According to PeckShield, the hacker used a secondary wallet address to deposit the entire converted ETH amount into Tornado Cash, which virtually made the funds untraceable.
This is a similar pattern of crypto hacks that’s been noticed across multiple cases this year. Earlier this year, a unanimous hacker followed a similar pattern using Tordano Cash to steal $150 million worth of crypto from popular exchange KuCoin.
The global crypto market is already suffering from a major crash, which will continue throughout the week and possibly this month. This hack will fuel the growing FUD among investors. There is a lot of concerns among the users regarding the insurance of their lost assets. Platforms like Binance and Coinbase provide insurance against any security breach. However, whether Bitmart users will receive the same benefits is still unclear.
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