In a big security lapse in crypto this year, BitMart, a cryptocurrency exchange was hacked and one of its hot wallets was drained off from its contents. The hackers managed to flee with a mammoth $200 million with a mixed-bag crypto including some stablecoins, meme coins, Binance Coin and others.
The crypto exchange’s hot wallet was targeted in the early hours of morning by PeckShield, a blockchain analytics company that keeps track of any illicit activity occurring around the blockchain networks. The blockchain reporting organization reported this hack and first identified the stolen funds that were based on the Ethereum network WORTH $100 million. After that, further $96 million worth of funds lost via Binance Smart Chain were also identified and reported.
According to their official Twitter handle:
Total estimated loss: ~200M (~100M on @ethereum and ~96M on @BinanceChain ). (Previously we only counted the loss on @ethereum). And here is the list of affected assets/amounts on @BinanceChain pic.twitter.com/cXXApDFtd7
— PeckShield Inc. (@peckshield) December 5, 2021
The move was soon confirmed by BitMart’s CEO himself who called it a mass security breach of the Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain hot wallets.
According to Sheldon Xia, the CEO of BitMart:
“At this moment we are still concluding the possible methods used. The hackers were able to withdraw assets of the value of approximately USD 150 million.”
This is not a stand-alone cyber attack on the crypto sector. Earlier, the Celsius blockchain network was hacked for around $50 million after its BadgerDAO system suffered an attack on Thursday. It was a DAO attack that resulted in unauthorized withdrawal of funds in the blockchain network.
After Celsius, today’s hack of BitMart has been another significant attack that has resulted in user funds being lost. This is part of a worrying trend in the wider crypto space in addition to the DeFi systems in place. While both of these companies quickly went into damage control and have started a re-assessment of their systems in place, the damage is still done and users whose funds have been targeted and hacked will definitely have it challenging in the near future.
Overall, the crypto sector is still much better than the conventional finance industry that is seeing record number of infiltrations and hacks around the world. Especially, if you are concerned about your crypto and don’t want it falling in the wrong hands, there is always the option of offline wallets that take your money off the grid and away from prying hackers. However, the same approach does limit your functionality overall so there is a trade-off. All big HODLers hold their crypto on wallets like these. Also, you shouldn’t hold it all in one place and spread it across multiple wallets for further added security.
Image Source: pixabay.com
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