coinedition.com
In a dramatic unfolding of events, the crypto market, often thrashed by exploitation and security breaches, recently shook the community with a massive fraudulent deposit incident. On September 21, the South Korean crypto exchange Upbit identified a staggering $3.4 billion in counterfeit APT tokens dubbed “ClaimAPTGift.com” deposited in the exchange’s 400,000 Aptos wallets.
An X (formerly Twitter) account run by a group of South Korean crypto traders, named ‘Definalist’ shared a post about the “huge and foolish incident.” Unveiling the hacker’s tactics, Definalist asserted that the scam occurred because “there was a failure to check the type arguments and all the same functions transfers were recognized as the same APT native token.” PeckShield Alert, the leading blockchain security and data analytics company, also shared an X thread, drawing their followers’ attention to the attack.
⚡️How did such a huge and foolish incident occur?
— Definalist (@definalist) September 24, 2023
– It seems that during the process of reflecting $APT coin deposits, there was a failure to check the type arguments, and all same functions transfers were recognized as the same APT native token.
– Under normal circumstances,… https://t.co/CvDgTdqnGl pic.twitter.com/8gEx5YnOLH
However, they added that the presence of a 6 decimal in the scammer’s token averted a major disaster. They added, “If the scam token had a decimal of 8, all users would have received $25,000 instead of $250, leading to thousands of users dumping $25,000 worth of APT, causing significant disruption.”
Initially, the fake coins were mistakenly identified as real APT tokens by Upbit. Nonetheless, upon identifying the security breach, the platform suspended APT deposits and withdrawals, citing the necessity of system maintenance. The statement read,
Due to the maintenance of the Aptos (APT) wallet system, we are suspending the Aptos (APT) deposit and withdrawal service. We will resume deposits and withdrawals once the maintenance is complete, and we will update the service resumption through this notice,” the exchange wrote in a statement to users.
Following detailed scrutiny over the issue, Upbit resumed the company’s services on September 24. The platform also assured their customers of the safety of their assets despite the exploitation. Though the APT token had a noticeable decline in its price after the breach, the altcoin is currently trading at a price of $5.42, exhibiting a substantial increase of 6.20%.