Key Takeaways
- Mark Cuban’s MetaMask wallet was hacked, resulting in a loss of approximately $870K.
- An independent sleuth named Wazz detected the suspicious wallet activity.
- Cuban’s quick transfer of $2.5 million USDC to Coinbase prevented further losses.
Scams and hacks in the crypto-sphere are an unfortunate reality, and with more platforms being compromised on that front, it just adds to the stress of the development potential of crypto-landscape. Last night, Mark Cuban announced that his MetaMask wallet had been under attack. He reported a loss of $870K despite there being a remarkable rescue of $2.5 million on Polygon. Interestingly, the hack was identified by independent blockchain sleuth Wazz, who observed suspicious behavior in one of Mark Cuban’s wallets. Let’s see the details of the incident.
Twitter & Role of Independent Sleuths
Interestingly enough, if it wasn’t for Wazz, Mark Cuban’s wallet and its suspicious activities would have never been highlighted. Through this tweet, he brought attention to this MetaMask wallet and its activity. Wazz noticed and correctly pointed out the hacker’s actions, like a sudden withdrawal of assets such as USD Coin (USDC), Tether (USDT), and Lido Staked Ether (stETH) from Cuban’s wallet within a 10-minute window. This was followed by a subsequent withdrawal of $2 million USD to a different wallet.
Later, Mark Cuban responded to the hack, emphasizing that he had not interacted with MetaMask for months and he suspected that the hacker might have been watching and waiting for an opportune moment. Cuban also mentioned, “Someone took 5 ETH from me.” He added, “I hadn’t used MetaMask in months; they were likely monitoring it.” Cuban’s losses exceed 5 Ether, approximately valued at $9,000 presently, totaling approximately $870,000 across ten different cryptocurrencies.
Lucky for Cuban, he managed to transfer $2.5 million USDC to Coinbase without the hacker realizing. This move was a significant one indeed as it helped him avoid significant losses as it could have been more.
As developments and confirmation have been coming in, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has acknowledged the incident and given instructions and detailed guides to users to stay safe.
If there is anything that this incident teaches us, it’s that security lessons should be learned, including the importance of regularly monitoring wallets, taking proactive security measures, and using secure custody solutions. We do not vouch for any individual service, but users are advised to take precautions at all times.
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