Hacking into cryptocurrency exchanges seems to have caught the attention of several fraudulent individuals. As the value of cryptocurrencies has been on a surge, hackers have been prying into the industry looking for easy money making ways. Prominent cryptocurrency exchange, KuCoin is the latest to fall prey to a hack.
Nearly $150 Million In BTC Stolen
Earlier today, several users of the exchange reported problems that they were facing with regard to withdrawals. The KuCoin’s Telegram channel was flooded with messages regarding missing funds. While the exchange’s team didn’t immediately agree that the platform was compromised, several admins of the group reportedly restrained the users from withdrawing or depositing their funds, “given the situation.” As the unrest around the “situation” built up, KuCoin shared a blog post, affirming that it had been subject to a hack.
KuCoin shelters several prominent cryptocurrencies and the latest hack reportedly caused the loss of Bitcoin, ERC-20 along with other tokens from the exchange. These assets were transferred from the exchange’s hot wallet. While the cold wallets remained untouched, the exchange affirmed that the hot wallets were re-deployed.
Even though the exchange hadn’t revealed any numbers pertaining to its latest loss, several Twitter handles reported that a total of $150 million were moved out of KuCoin to an unknown address.
$150mil was moved from #kucoin wallet to a unknown address. Users are reporting being blocked on withdraws. Alicia says they are investigating and funds are safe.. https://t.co/MvPBX21XdE pic.twitter.com/h80JOYwicP
— koichi (@koichims) September 26, 2020
While the members of the exchange are still probing the incident, it has put a hold on both deposits as well as withdrawal services. The duration of the suspension remains uncertain, however, it would be restored post confirmation of a “safe state.” The post further read,
“We are locating the reason for the incident, and will keep you updated once it is confirmed. Please rest assured that if any user fund is affected by this incident, it will be covered completely by KuCoin and our insurance fund.”
During the time of writing, KuCoin stood as the sixteenth largest cryptocurrency exchange and had witnessed a 21.38% increase in its daily volume in the BTC/USD market.
Additionally, the “outflow pattern” of KuCoin resembled that of Binance when the latter got hacked. CryptoQuant revealed that exchanges were to be on the lookout for a drastic increase in the BTC outflow. The tweet read,
It seems #Kucoin got hacked.
Usually, after being hacked, the $BTC outflow increases rapidly and then becomes zero. Since 20:00 UTC on September 25th, the outflow has continuously been zero.
Chart: https://t.co/kHsUEzh92C pic.twitter.com/qgycevVsnT
— CryptoQuant (@cryptoquant_com) September 26, 2020