Renowned cryptocurrency exchange Bitrue has fallen victim to a hack that has resulted in a loss of approximately $23 million worth of cryptocurrency. The manner in which the attack was executed was not explicitly stated by Bitrue. The exchange is investigating the situation at the moment.
Bitrue tweeted:
We have identified a brief exploit in one of our hot wallets on 07:18 (UTC), 14 April 2023. We were able to address this matter quickly and prevented the further exploit of funds.
According to the announcement made by Bitrue, all the withdrawals have been temporarily halted due to a “brief exploit” of their hot wallet. The exchange will conduct further security inspections and has planned to reestablish withdrawals by April 18, 2023.
Bitrue stated that the attackers were successful in the withdrawals of funds in the forms of various cryptocurrencies, including ETH, QNT, GALA, SHIB, HOT, and MATIC.
The exchange clarified that the impacted wallet represented less than 5% of the total reserves and assured its users that the remaining wallets were not affected by the security breach.
The exchange has also pledged to keep its users informed of any updates and has taken measures to minimize the breach’s impact.
Bitrue records an average trading volume of more than $1 billion each day, with Bitcoin and Ether being among the top token pairs traded on the exchange.
Full Compensation Promised For Affected Bitrue Users
Bitrue’s management highlighted that their prompt response to the incident enabled them to prevent any further loss of funds. They have also assured their users that they will be fully compensated for any losses incurred due to the security breach.
The perpetrator has reportedly initiated the sale of the pilfered cryptocurrencies. According to a report by PeckShieldAlert, the mentioned quantities of SHIB, GALA, QNT, and MATIC were sold for around 8,540 ETH, causing the price of QNT to decline by 11% within three hours of the sale.
Additional information regarding the recent crypto theft from Bitrue has been shared by the crypto intelligence firm Arkham.
The data published on Arkham’s Twitter account indicates that the total amount stolen was approximately $24.4 million, with most of the stolen funds comprising QNT, GALA, and SHIBA INU tokens.
Interestingly, the data suggests that the hacker did not convert the majority of the stolen SHIB and HOT tokens. The situation is still being investigated by Bitrue, and it remains to be seen if any further information will be revealed.
The recent hack on Bitrue is yet another example of the ongoing security challenges faced by crypto and DeFi projects. In a similar incident, South Korean crypto exchange GDAC reported that a hacker had stolen almost $14 million from its platform, leading to a temporary suspension of all transactions for a period of two weeks.
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