BitMart Exchange Suffers $196 Million Security Breach

Summary #

On December 4, 2021, BitMart Exchange, a global cryptocurrency platform operating in 180+ countries, fell victim to a significant security breach. The attacker extracted approximately $196 million worth of various digital assets from the hot wallets of the exchange across two networks: Binance Smart Chain (BSC) - $96 million, and Ethereum - $100 million. The primary targets were meme-based tokens, such as SHIB and SAFEMOON. The attacker converted the stolen tokens into ETH and BNB via 1inch and laundered these assets using TornadoCash.

Attackers #

The identity of the attacker remains unknown. The hacker used the following addresses to transfer the funds:

• Ethereum:
  • 0x39fb0dcd13945b835d47410ae0de7181d3edf270
  • 0x4bb7d80282f5e0616705d7f832acfc59f89f7091
• BSC:
  • 0x25fb126b6c6b5c8ef732b86822fa0f0024e16c61

Losses #

BitMart Exchange lost around $196 million in total from its hot wallets across Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain:

• $100 Million on Ethereum
• $96 Million on BSC

The stolen assets mainly consisted of memecoins like SHIB and SAFEMOON.

Timeline #

• December 4, 2021, 21:31 UTC: The attack commenced on the Ethereum network. The attacker started by withdrawing ~$33M worth of SHIB tokens
• December 4, 2021, 22:00 UTC: The attacker moved to BSC and withdrew ~$41M worth of SAFEMOON tokens
• December 5, 2021, 03:01 UTC: The hacker transferred the stolen funds to TornadoCash

Security Failure Causes #

Compromised Private Key: Although the BitMart Exchange has not officially disclosed the cause of their recent security issues, it is highly probable that the private key of the hot wallets was compromised.