Crypto Exchange Liquid Global Hacked, Hot Wallets Lose BTC, TRX, XRP & ETH

Another major security breach has struck the cryptocurrency sector, a few weeks after the attack that affected the DeFi space. This time, a less exciting but still more conventional cryptocurrency exchange hack occurred. Liquid, a Japanese exchange, claims that its hot wallets (the wallets that contain the exchange’s cryptocurrencies) had been hacked during the last several hours.

Approximately $80 million is at stake as a result of this. While the exchange looks into the issue, users will not be able to deposit or withdraw money from the exchange. The team has clarified that only the hot wallets were hacked in the cryptocurrency-fiat exchange platform hack. This implies that all of the cryptos in the cold wallets are secure. It has also determined the hacker’s addresses.

It’s unclear how much has been sent to these addresses, but sources suggest that they had 107 BTC, 9,000,000 TRX, 11,000,000 XRP and nearly $60 million worth of ETH/ERC-20 tokens as balances. Currently, the team is conducting investigations, and the exact details of swindled funds are likely to be confirmed over the following several hours or days.

Kucoin has stated that it has banned the identified addresses in solidarity of Liquid and denunciation of the hacker. The CEO of the exchange acknowledged this soon after the information of the hack was revealed. Because of the quick response, the hackers will find it nearly improbable to transfer or spend the money.

The present trend, according to John LaCour, founder and CTO of PhishLabs, is not unexpected since hackers have maintained their level of awareness and knowledge of the different platforms in the sector. He also mentioned the growing trend of hackers being able to detect possible flaws in various systems.

“Earlier, hackers utilized cryptocurrency only for malware payments, but a lot of things have evolved. In order to use cryptocurrencies to pay malware, hackers must first enlighten themselves on these platforms, gaining a degree of knowledge and understanding of the different platforms in the area, the security measures they have or do not have in force, and their possible flaws.”