Cryptocurrency exchange Bitmart has become the latest victim of a serious hacking attack. An alleged amount of $196 million (approximately 1,479 crore) stored in various cryptocurrencies was stolen from Bitmart in this attack. The stolen tokens were transferred to unknown hacker(s) hiding under the pseudonym “Bitmart Hacker”. The breach that happened on Saturday night, December 4th gained traction after security firm PeckShield posted about it on Twitter. According to PeckShield, while the stolen Ethereum-based crypto assets were worth $100 million (approximately Rs 754), the remaining $96 million (approximately 724 crore) of assets were based on Binance Smart Chain.
In a series of tweets, PeckShield shared a screenshot of electronic money was stolen in this breach.
The hack was also acknowledged by Sheldon Xia, the CEO of Bitmart, who tweeted that the problem was caused by a stolen private key that had two hot keys. wallet damaged. Internet-enabled hot wallets are linked with public and private keys to facilitate cryptocurrency transactions while also acting as a security measure.
Xia also added that for now, Bitmart has chosen to suspend all withdrawals until further notice.
1/3 We have identified a large-scale security breach involving one of our ETH hot wallets and one of our BSC hot wallets. At this point, we are still concluding the possible methods to be used. The hackers were able to withdraw approximately $150 million worth of assets.
– Sheldon Xia (@sheldonbitmart) December 5, 2021
According to a The report by NewsRoomPost, a decentralized exchange aggregator called “1inch” was used by hackers to swap stolen assets in exchange for Ether token.
The resulting Ether tokens are being deposited into a privacy mixer called Tornado Cash, making the hacked funds difficult to trace.
Investigations were made to track down the hacker responsible for this Bitmart breach.
Recently The report revealed that the total number of crypto crimes in 2020 amounts to around $10.52 billion (approximately Rs 79,194).
In October, a major hacking attack consumed the Ethereum-based lending protocol known as “Cream Finance” crypto asset value.
Early November, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says that cyber fraudsters are making innocent people use physical crypto ATMs and digital QR Codes to complete malicious transactions and defraud them of assets.
