KuCoin, a Singapore based Digital Asset trade platform, has been hacked as the exchange recently discovered a security compromise. They explained that large sums of cryptos had been cleared from a certain wallet 19:05 UTC on Friday.
How it All Happened
It appears that hackers got hold of the private keys to the trade platform’s loaded hot digital wallets. The exchange’s CEO, Johnny Lyu, immediately sent the remains of the accounts to new accounts and froze all transactions therefrom. It appears the trade platform’s cold accounts were not attacked. Coindesk emphasized that
“Cold cryptocurrency wallets are not connected to the Internet and are considered more secure than hot cryptocurrency wallets.”
What remains at large is the amount of cryptos that was swooned. But Lyu promised to reveal the affected address and the estimate of stolen cryptocurrencies.
KCS, the Exchange’s Token has Tanked
A crypto data brand, CoinGecko estimated that there are more than 200 crypto assets traded on KuCoin with a daily average of $100, million. As soon as the security attack became mainstream knowledge on Saturday, the value of the KCS, the exchange’s token, plunged by 14% to a low $0.86 in an hour. KuCoin’s CEO explained that the stolen crypto assets will be “covered completely” by KuCoin and its insurance fund.
Other Exchanges Freeze Cryptos In a Collaborative Effort to Curb Further Attacks
As a collaborative response to the brazen attacks on KuCoin, Bitfinex and Tether have frozen cryptos on their exchanges totalling 13 million tether USDT and 20 million tether USDT respectively.
