- Stake cryptocurrency casino was exploited for $41.3 million following a private key leak.
- On-chain analyst Cyvers and ZachXBT detected "multiple suspicious transactions" across Ethereum, Polygon and the Binance Smart Chain.
- The victim wallet holds a remaining balance of $340,000 of ETH and $2.1M in various altcoins – Etherscan data.
- Operations resumed five hours later, with the company providing updates for clarity.
Stake cryptocurrency casino had suspended all deposits and withdrawals, after the betting platform suffered an exploit, with the bad actor making away with millions of Dollars’ worth of crypto. PeckShield Security Company also highlighted the incident.
Hi @Stake, you may want to take a look: https://t.co/qtoTeXpXWE
— PeckShield Inc. (@peckshield) September 4, 2023
In a recent development, the platform has resumed operations, with the platform saying, "Deposits and withdrawals are processing instantly for all currencies," and assuring user fund safety.
Three hours ago, unauthorised tx’s were made from Stake’s ETH/BSC hot wallets.
— Stake.com (@Stake) September 4, 2023
We are investigating and will get the wallets up as soon as they’re completely re-secured.
User funds are safe.
BTC, LTC, XRP, EOS, TRX + all other wallets remain fully operational.
Despite assurances that Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), and Ripple (XRP) wallets are unaffected, the cause of the exploit or how much was stolen remains unknown. Efforts to resecure the wallets are ongoing.
Also Read: Shiba Inu price lags as traders are cautious in deploying capital on Shibarium
Stake crypto casino hacked for $41.3 million
Stake, an Australian sports betting and crypto casino service provider suffered an exploit on Monday, leading to a loss of up to $41.3 million. In the aftermath, the platform has suspended all deposits and withdrawals as investigations continue.
stake suspended deposits and withdrawals
— Spreek (@spreekaway) September 4, 2023
While the platform has not released an official statement on the matter, on-chain analysts have broken down the incident, revealing Ethereum, Polygon, and Binance Smart Chain networks were involved.
ALERTOur AI-powered system has detected multiple suspicious transactions with @Stake.https://t.co/0ZoMITOyF5 address received about $16M in $ETH $USDC $USDT and $DAI
— Cyvers Alerts (@CyversAlerts) September 4, 2023
All the stable coins are converted to $ETH and distributed to different EOAs.
FYI: @tayvano_ @zachxbt pic.twitter.com/CSGwRHEiVm
Specifically, on-chain analyst Cyvers’ AI systems detected “multiple suspicious transactions” with Stake, citing an address receiving about $15.7M in Ethereum (ETH), and several stablecoins, including USDC, USDT, and MakerDAO's stablecoin, DAI. The stablecoins were then converted to ETH and distributed to different EOAs. Another $25.6M was drained on BSC and Polygon.
The attack wallet holds a remaining balance of $340,000 worth of ETH and $2.1 million in various altcoins based on Etherscan data. FXStreet has reached out to Stake for a comment even as Stake customers squint for answers.
Ethereum development FAQs
What is the next big Ethereum software update?
After the Merge, the Ethereum community is looking at the Sharding upgrade next, which has been slated for sometime later in the year. The development can be summarized in four words, “scalability through more efficient data storage.” The software update will increase the capacity of the blockchain, widening the amount of data that can be stored or accessed. At the same time, all services running atop the Ethereum blockchain will enjoy significantly reduced transaction fees.
What is the difference between hard fork and soft fork?
A fork is the splitting of a blockchain after developers agree and proceed to implement upgrades. The decision comes after these developers reach a consensus for a software upgrade. The ensuing part will see one part continue with the status as is, while the other one will proceed with new features combined with the former ones. A hard fork basically entails permanent divergence of a new side chain from the original one, while a soft fork is doing the same, only difference being that it is temporary.
What is EIP-4844?
EIP-4844 is an improvement proposal for the Ethereum network. The upgrade promises reduced gas fees, which is a valuable offering considering the high transaction cost that continues to daunt crypto players. It has been a long-standing concern for the Ethereum network. The proposal is also referred to as “proto-Danksharding,” with an unmatched ability to increase the speed of transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. At the same time, it helps to reduce the transaction cost as everything becomes decentralized.
What is gas in the context of Ethereum?
Gas token is a new, innovative Ethereum contract where users can tokenize gas on the Ethereum network. This means they can store gas when it is cheap and start to deploy the gas once the market has shifted to the north. The use of Gas token helps to subsidize high gas prices on transactions, meaning investors can do everything from arbitraging decentralized exchanges to buying into initial coin offerings (ICOs) early.