Hackers steal $53 million worth of cryptocurrencies from CoinEx
CoinEx under attack: millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency funds stolen
CoinEx, a well-known cryptocurrency exchange, suffered a cyber attack resulting in the loss of digital assets worth approximately $53 million. The cryptocurrencies involved are Ethereum, Tron and Polygon. CoinEx has suspended services to protect users and it is suspected that the Lazarus group may be involved in the attack.
The well-known cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx has announced that it has been the victim of a cyber attack which led to the theft of a large amount of digital assets used to support the platform's operations. The incident occurred on September 12 and according to preliminary findings of the investigation, the unauthorized transactions involve the cryptocurrencies Ethereum ($ETH), Tron ($TRON) and Polygon ($MATIC). CoinEx did not provide information on the financial loss suffered as the investigation has yet to determine the full losses.
Losses estimated at $53 million according to CertiK Alert
However, a report from PeckShield, a company specializing in blockchain transaction security, states that the attack drained CoinEx of approximately $19 million in $ETH, $11 million in $TRON, $6.4 million in Smart Chain Coin ($BSC ), $6 million in Bitcoin (BTC) and approximately $295,000 in (MATIC). According to PeckShield, the loss from this attack amounts to approximately $43 million, while the remaining $72 million was transferred to more secure "cold" wallets. A more recent estimate of losses suffered by CoinEx, reported in the CertiK Alert document, puts the figure at $53 million, analyzed as indicated in the file.
Insurance and suspension of services to protect users
CoinEx ensured that users' assets were not compromised and guaranteed full refunds to anyone who suffered a loss. At the time of writing, all deposit and withdrawal services on CoinEx have been suspended to protect user assets and will only be reinstated after the exchange's IT team has eliminated all risk.
Suspected involvement of the Lazarus Group
The frequency of million-dollar cryptocurrency thefts is on the rise, with the North Korean group Lazarus being blamed for many of the recent high-profile incidents. In the case of CoinEx, no official attribution has been made, but blockchain investigator ZachXBT says one of the wallet addresses involved in the attack was previously associated with Lazarus. This group was linked to the theft of $35 million from Atomic Wallet in June, $60 million from Alphapo in July, and another $37.3 million from CoinsPaid, also in July.
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