Crypto Exchange BitMart confirms hack resulting in $ 150 million loss in crypto

Crypto Exchange BitMart said late on Saturday that it had been hacked, resulting in the loss of $ 150 million in crypto.

Security researchers PeckShield initially estimated that the stock exchange had been hacked $ 100 million.

Founder and CEO Sheldon Xia later confirmed the incident and wrote further Twitter: “We have identified a large-scale security breach related to one of our ETH hot wallets and one of our BSC hot wallets. At the moment we are still concluding with possible methods used. The hackers were able to withdraw assets to a value of about USD 150 million. “

Xia went on to write that the stock exchange “conducts a thorough security review” and that all withdrawals have been suspended until “further notice”.

19.30 UTC, PeckShield first noticed an excessive number of outgoing transmissions. It found that a number of tokens had been sent out of BitMart’s hot wallet, from 4.30pm EST. These tokens included large amounts of meme tokens such as shiba (SHIB), plus half a million dollars in stablecoin USDC.

Other commentators have pointed out that funds have also been removed on the Binance Smart Chain blockchain, which could increase the amount of funds taken.

The funds have been forwarded to Ethereum’s blending service Tornado Cash, which will make it more difficult to track them.

BitMart has not yet confirmed the hack. We have contacted the stock exchange and will update this story if we hear back.

This latest news report has been updated with additional information, including the headline.

For more exciting stories like this, be sure to follow The Block on Twitter.