Bitrue, a Singapore-based crypto exchange, has officially announced that it has been hit by a security breach, which allowed hackers to drain one of its hot wallets of $23 million in various crypto assets.
Details Of The Bitrue Hack
Bitrue crypto exchange has been hacked.
In a Twitter post revealing the details of the hack, Bitrue said it detected a hot wallet exploit earlier today. Hot wallets are normally connected to the internet to allow for fast deposits and withdrawals, but this makes them more vulnerable to hacks than cold wallets. The company said that the attacker managed to steal a total of $23 million in Ethereum (ETH), Shiba Inu (SHIB), Quatn (QNT), Polygon (MATIC), GALA, and Holo (HOT).
PeckShield, a blockchain security and analytics firm, estimates that the hacker swapped 173,000 QNT, 22.55 billion SHIB, 46.4 million GALA, and 310,000 MATIC for ~8,540 ETH, before transferring the ill-gotten gains to this Ethereum wallet.
Bitrue noted that the affected hot wallet held less than 5% of the exchange’s overall reserves, adding that the rest of the wallets had not been compromised. Bitrue emphasized that it addressed the matter quickly, thus preventing the attackers from siphoning more assets. ”We take this matter seriously and are currently investigating the situation,” the exchange stated.
The Singaporean exchange clarified that it will be fully compensating those customers who have lost their funds. In the meantime, Bitrue has temporarily disabled all withdrawals for users. It expects to resume withdrawals on April 18 after conducting further security checks.
This is not the first time Bitrue has been exploited. In 2019, the exchange was hacked for over $4 million in XRP and Cardano due to a vulnerability in their Risk Control team’s 2nd review process, allowing bad actors to access its hot wallet.
The Bitrue incident marks the second major attack on a centralized crypto exchange in recent weeks. Just days ago, South Korean exchange Gdac was hacked for nearly $13 million in a similar fashion.
