Wallet Hack

Wintermute Incurs $160 Million Loss from Brute Force Private Key Compromise Linked to Profanity's Vulnerability

Summary # On September 20, 2022, Wintermute, a London-based algorithmic market maker offering liquidity across Centralized Finance (CeFi) and Decentralized Finance (DeFi) exchanges and over-the-counter (OTC) deals, was the victim of a security breach. The exploit resulted in a loss of approximately $160 million, impacting 90 different assets including stable coins, Bitcoin, Ether, and various altcoins. The attack was executed through a brute force private key compromise Source. The suspected vulnerability originated from Profanity, a service Wintermute used for generating vanity addresses, despite efforts to blacklist their Profanity-associated accounts after the vulnerability became known. ...

Ronin Network suffers 51% attack, $625 million stolen

Summary # On March 23, 2022, Ronin Network, a blockchain that powers the popular game Axie Infinity, suffered a 51% attack. This allows the attacker to control the network via compromising validators private keys and perform malicious actions, such as double-spending transactions or preventing new blocks from being mined. The attack resulted in the theft of $625 million worth of Ethereum and USDC. The hackers were able to reorganize over 100 blocks, which allowed them to double-spend large amount of assets. ...

LCX Exchange Hacked for $8 Million

Summary # On January 8, 2023, cryptocurrency exchange LCX was hacked, resulting in the theft of cryptocurrencies $8 million. Hackers gained access to the exchange’s hot wallets and stole various cryptocurrencies, including ETH, USDC, SAND, LINK, QNT, ENJ, and MKR. Attackers # The identity of the hackers who attacked LCX is unknown. Hacker ETH Wallets: 0x165402279F2C081C54B00f0E08812F3fd4560A05 0x29875bd49350aC3f2Ca5ceEB1c1701708c795FF3 Losses # LCX estimated the losses from the hack to be $8 million. ...

AscendEX Hack: $77 Million Stolen in Hot Wallet Breach

Summary # On December 11, 2021, AscendEX, a cryptocurrency exchange, was the victim of a hot wallet breach that resulted in the loss of $77 million. The attacker gained access to one of the exchange’s hot wallets, used to store user funds available for withdrawal. Attackers # The identity of the attacker(s) remains unknown. Wallet addresses to which assets were transferred: ERC20: 0x2c6900b24221de2b4a45c8c89482fff96ffb7e55 Polygon: 0x2c6900b24221de2b4a45c8c89482fff96ffb7e55 BSC: 0x2c6900b24221de2b4a45c8c89482fff96ffb7e55 LTC: LSvQWLf2kGm7UdXtwKvNj4GU1B4xKWUQXR BCH: qp2x5rnn2fkraxcp4hr6suqmnpdehfaaaqn3tv6jke Losses # The attackers managed to steal approximately $77 million worth of assets from the AscendEX network. ...

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. ...

Bilaxy Exchange Suffers Security Breach with a Loss of $21 Million

Summary # On August 28, 2021, Bilaxy, a Seychelles-based centralized exchange, experienced a security breach, resulting in a loss of approximately $21 million. The attacker compromised Bilaxy’s hot wallet and transferred roughly 300 tokens, including notable cryptocurrencies such as USDT, USDC, UNI, and Bilaxy Token(BIA), among others. As of August 16, 2023, the attacker still controls various tokens worth roughly $3,628,005. Attackers # The identity of the attackers remains unknown. ...

Liquid Exchange Hacked for $97 Million

Summary # On August 18, 2021, Liquid, a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange, was hacked for $97 million. The attacker gained access to one of the exchange’s hot wallets, which are used to store user funds that are available for withdrawal. Attackers # The identity of the attacker(s) is unknown. BTC: 1Fx1bhbCwp5LU2gHxfRNiSHi1QSHwZLf7q ETH: 0x5578840aae68682a9779623fa9e8714802b59946 0xefb33ccafc98d5fdb27a6f5ff17350ca76bf3b53 XRP: rfapBqj7rUkGju7oHTwBwhEyXgwkEM4yby TRX: TSpcue3bDfZNTP1CutrRrDxRPeEvWhuXbp Losses # The attackers managed to steal a total of $97 million worth of cryptocurrency from the Liquid hot wallet. ...

EasyFi Hacked for $81 Million

Summary # On April 19, 2021, a hacker stole $81 million worth of cryptocurrency from EasyFi, a decentralized finance platform. The hacker introduced a malicious version of MetaMask into the computer and stole the private key. Attackers # The identity of the hackers who attacked EasyFi is unknown. Hacker ETH Wallet: 0x83a2EB63B6Cc296529468Afa85DbDe4A469d8B37 Losses # EasyFi estimated the losses from the hack to be $81 million. The stolen assets included: ...

Africrypt Founders Vanished with $3.6 Billion in Bitcoin

Summary # On June 23, 2021, Africrypt, a centralized platform claiming to connect banks, payment providers, and digital asset providers for seamless global money transfers, was reportedly compromised. Ameer and Raees Cajee, the exchange’s founders, were reported missing after alleging that almost $3.6 billion invested in the protocol was stolen in a “hack”. Africrypt staff lost access to the exchange’s back-end systems seven days before the claimed attack. Subsequent investigations found that most of the bitcoin invested with the exchange had been withdrawn and moved through tumblers and mixers, making it harder to track. ...

EXMO Exchange Hot Wallets Compromised: Approximately $10.5 Million Stolen

Summary # On December 21, 2020, the attackers gained unauthorized access to the EXMO exchange’s hot wallets. Through these security weaknesses, they managed to execute malicious transactions, resulting in the theft of a substantial amount of cryptocurrency. Attackers # The identities of the attackers remain undisclosed. The following addresses were involved: 1A4PXZE5j8v7UuapYckq6fSegmY5i8uUyq 0x4BA6B2fF35055aF5406923406442cD3aB29F50Ce qrfrw5q9gag2vp6jc5nlx0haplm2jlhx9vsvxd9u3e t1StUQiw1YyHT515xDxwxjfhEcw2iGSq2yL rwU8rAiE2eyEPz3sikfbHuqCuiAtdXqa2v Destination Tag: 2033412069 0x4d9EF6846126Da2867AF503448be0508542C971e Losses # The EXMO security breach resulted in the theft of around $10. ...