With the crypto market losing momentum and investors panicking again, a group of hackers targeted the cryptocurrency exchange Bitmart, further fueling users’ concerns.
Earlier on Sunday, Bitmart Founder and CEO Sheldon Xia confirmed that the exchange had been hacked, noting:
“We have identified a large-scale security breach involving one of our ETH hot wallets and one of our BSC hot wallets. We are currently still working on possible methods. The hackers managed to lure assets worth about $150 million.”
By contrast, security researchers PeckShield estimated a total loss of $200 million in various assets. According to researchers,
“Total estimated losses: around 200 million (~100 million on Ethereum and ~96 million on BinanceChain). (Previously we were only counting the loss in Ethereum). And here is the list of assets/amounts affected on BinanceChain.”
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
Hackers Binance Coin [BNB]It attacked more than 20 tokens such as Safemoon and BPay, but meme-coins were also among those affected – such as BabyDoge, Floki, and Moonshot.
According to Xia, the exchange is currently conducting a security review. Given the protocols, withdrawals are suspended until further notice. The CEO released an update note:
“Currently, we are temporarily suspending withdrawals until further notice. We beg your understanding and patience in this situation. Thank you so much.”
Peckshield noted the hack on Saturday and estimated the amount lost was close to $100 million over the Ethereum blockchain. However, as they dig deeper, the researchers noted that the exchange’s BSC reserves are also running out, which is close to $96 million. Peckshield observed that this was a simple practice for hackers to “transfer-out, swap, and wash”.