Key Takeaways
- CoinEx experiences a significant security breach with stolen assets, including $MATIC.
- Suspected involvement of North Korean hackers and money laundering activities.
- Crypto community urged to remain vigilant amid rising security threats.
With an increase in security breaches in the crypto-landscape, users have been advised time and again to be vigilant. In a similar turn of events, today, PeckShiledAlert has notified users that there has been a crypto security breach at CoinEx. The drainer has targeted Polygon and has managed to transfer 560K of $MATIC, which is almost $660K. Moreover, there has been laundering of funds to Binance, Change Now, CEX, and Fixed Float. Moreover, some funds have been bridged to Ethereum and subsequently transferred to CEX, like Binance and Fixed Float. Now, let’s dive into the details of this hack.
The Intricacies
The hack seems to be associated with North Korean hackers based on blockchain sleuth ZackXBT’s analysis. It appears that they accidentally connected their address to the $41M Stake hack on OP and Polygon.
The hack happened on September 12, 2023, when the Risk Control System at CoinEx detected unusual withdrawals from several hot wallet addresses where the exchange’s assets are stored. Realizing the seriousness of the situation, CoinEx promptly assembled a dedicated investigative team to thoroughly examine the issue. Preliminary evaluations suggested that unauthorized transactions involving Ethereum, Tron, and MATIC took place.
Facts and Figures
Following the news of a significant security breach, a frenzy spread throughout the crypto community. Initially, the estimated stolen funds were at $27 million. However, this staggering figure later surged to $54 million as the exchange disclosed details of several affected wallets on Wednesday. The breach involved the unauthorized withdrawal of other cryptocurrencies as well, including Ether (ETH), XRP, TRON’s TRX, MATIC, Solana’s SOL, Kadena’s KDA, and Dagger’s XDAG tokens.
Following PeckShieldAlert’s tweet, it is seen that various platforms like Stargate Finance, Binance, FixedFloat, and ChangeNow are now being compromised with suspected laundering activities. Currently, it appears that the drainer is attempting to obfuscate the source of the stolen funds by transferring them through different platforms.
Currently, there is suspicion that North Korean hackers, possibly the Lazarus group, are behind this crypto exploit. However, no concrete proof has been reached thus far. This unfortunate incident marks the crucial role of crypto security and threats implicated in the crypto-sphere. Users are advised to stay vigilant at all times.
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