Trading re-opens on KuCoin Exchange after $150M hack
Major crypto exchange firm, KuCoin has re-opened trading after its hot wallets were hacked on Friday.
The exchange announced its hot wallets were hacked and left empty. In a statement released by the firm, they detected large withdrawals of Bitcoin and Ether to an unknown wallet on Friday.
KuCoin did not disclose the amount of coin lost in the hack. However, the firm is believed to have lost around $150 million.
According to KuCoin CEO, Johnny Lyu, he said one or more hackers got the private keys to the exchange hot wallet. He said the firm has now transferred what was left in them to new hot wallets abandoned the old wallet and froze customers’ deposits and withdrawals.
The firm’s cold wallets were not touched, Lyu disclosed.
KuCoin’s ETH wallet sent over $11,000 to an unknown address according to data from blockchain explorer Etherscan.
The unknown addresses also received more than 150 Ethereum-based tokens worth more than $150 million, the Etherscan address information shows.
Following the hack, the exchange said they are working with international law enforcement and stolen customer money will be “covered completely” by an insurance fund, Lyu said.
KuCoin hack’s effect on crypto price
Apparently, it happened in the past that a crypto exchange security breach led to market-wide sell-off. This was because of the fear of hackers potentially selling the proceeds.
KuCoin’s hack case was not the same. After the firm announced it got hacked, BTC, ETH, and other coins prize remained stable.
Bitcoin price barely moved alongside other cryptos and decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens whose prices remained stable.
However, Tether froze the assets of 20,000,000 USDT that are linked to the security breach. Other exchange firms including Bitfinex also froze USDT associated with the hack.
Eterbase, other crypto firms that had suffered similar Kucoin hack
Weeks back, European crypto exchange firm Eterbase was hacked. The firm announced that it has suffered a security breach. Malicious hackers accessed its network and steal funds worth $5.4 million.
Ether, Tezos, Bitcoin, ALGO, Ripple, and TRON were stolen from the exchange firm. The firm had to put its exchange into “maintenance mode” following the security breach and reported the attack to law enforcement.
Since Sept 8 when the firm announced it got hacked, Eterbase is yet to begin operation fully. They are scheduled to return November/December as they are still in process of investigating the hack.
Madrid crypto firm, 2gether, Binance, Mt.Gox, Bitcoinica, BitFloor, PicoStocks are some other crypto firms that has been massively hit by crypto hackers.
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