financemagnates.com
AscendEX, formerly known as BitMax, has become the latest cryptocurrency exchange to fall victim to a hack, losing an estimated $77.7 million worth of cryptocurrencies.
The Singapore-based exchange officially announced the hack on Sunday through its official Twitter handle. It confirmed unauthorized withdrawals from one of its four hot wallets, but assured the safety of all the cryptocurrencies stored in cold wallets.
22:00 UTC 12/11, We have detected a number of ERC-20, BSC, and Polygon tokens transferred from our hot wallet. Cold Wallet is NOT affected. Investigation underway. If any user’s funds are affected by the incident, they will be covered completely by AscendEX.
— AscendEX (@AscendEX_Global) December 12, 2021
The perpetrators siphoned multiple cryptocurrencies from the exchange across three blockchains: Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain and Polygon. Though the exchange did not officially put up a figure of the loss, crypto security firm PeckShield estimated the total loss to be around $77.7 million.
Out of the total, $60 million worth of cryptocurrencies were taken out on Ethereum, $9.2 million on Binance Smart Chain and the rest on Polygon. The largest unauthorized withdrawal of more than $10.8 million was made in lesser-known altcoin TARA, followed by two stablecoins, USDT and USDC. Sums were also siphoned in popular tokens like SHIB, AAVE and COMP.
Estimated loss @AscendEX_Global: $77.7M in total ($60M on @ethereum $9.2M @BinanceChain $8.5M @0xPolygon). Here is the list of the transferred-out assets and their amounts on @ethereum pic.twitter.com/VC4DKOwu4f
— PeckShield Inc. (@peckshield) December 12, 2021
Assures Compensation
Meanwhile, the exchange assured that it will compensate all victims fully for their losses in the security breach. It also highlighted that the value of cryptocurrencies stolen in the attack consists of only a small percentage of total exchange assets.
The action plan of AscendEX further includes collaboration with blockchain forensic firms and law enforcement to investigate the attack, migrate the impacted projects and gradually re-start the deposit and withdrawal process.
The crypto exchange also shared the wallet addresses to which the stolen funds were transferred.
Meanwhile, crypto exchanges remain vulnerable to attacks despite technological advancements in the industry. Earlier this month, the security of Bitmart, another crypto exchange, was breached, resulting in the theft of $196 million in cryptocurrencies.