Hackers Make Off With $150 Million In Cryptocurrency Heist

Hackers have managed to get away with around $150m (£113,211,750) in a cryptocurrency heist. 

Cryptocurrency trading platform BitMart was the target of hackers, who were able to make off with millions. 

Although BitMart have said the loss is around $150m, blockchain analytics company PeckShield has estimated it to be nearer $200m (£150,949,000). 

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PeckShield, which first noticed the breach, have estimated hackers got away with around a $100m (£75,474,500) cryptocurrencies on the Ethereum blockchain and another $96m Binance smart chain. 

The hackers took more than 20 tokens, including Safemoon and Shib Inu. 

In a statement, the company said it had suspended all withdrawals ‘until further notice’. 

The statement said: “We have identified a large-scale security breach related to one of our ETH hot wallets and one of our BSC hot wallets today. At this moment we are still concluding the possible methods used. 

“Hackers were able to withdraw assets of the value of approximately 150 million USD.

“The affected ETH hot wallet and BSC hot wallet carry a small percentage of assets on BitMart and all of our other wallets are secure and unharmed. We are now conducting a thorough security review and we will post updates as we progress. 

“At this moment we are temporarily suspending withdrawals until further notice. We beg for your kind understanding and patience in this situation.

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“During this period, we will strive to maintain transparency and we appreciate your support. Thank you very much.

“BitMart will use our own funding to cover the incident and compensate affected users,” he said. “No user assets will be harmed.”

When trading in cryptocurrency, people can store their coins in ‘hot’ or ‘cold’ wallets - hot wallets are connected to the Internet, which means traders can easily access and spend their cryptocurrency, but it also means they are potentially open to hacking incidents such as this one. 

Steve Forbes, a cyber security expert at web registry Nominet, told The Independent: “It’s no surprise that attackers are targeting cryptocurrency exchanges, in many ways they are the new banks, which makes this a modern version of a bank heist with arguably less risk and less effort.

“As the threat of a ransomware attack continues to grow for all industries, cryptocurrency exchanges will be no exception.”

Topics: Crime, Cryptocurrency

Claire Reid

Claire is a journalist at LADbible who, after dossing around for a few years, went to Liverpool John Moores University. She graduated with a degree in Journalism and a whole load of debt. When not writing words in exchange for money she is usually at home watching serial killer documentaries surrounded by cats. You can contact Claire at [email protected]