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.