Bitrue crypto exchange hacked for about $23 million

Singapore-based crypto exchange Bitrue confirmed a hacking incident in which attackers were able to withdraw assets worth approximately $23 million.

2/4: The attackers were able to withdraw assets worth approximately 23M USD in ETH, QNT, GALA, SHIB, HOT and MATIC. The affected hot wallet only holds less than 5% of our overall funds. The rest of our wallets remain secure and have not been compromised.

— Bitrue (@BitrueOfficial) April 14, 2023

An unknown actor withdrew assets in ETH, QNT, GALA, SHIB, HOT and MATIC.

\”The compromised wallet holds less than 5% of our total funds. The rest remain secure and have not been hacked,\” the team clarified.

Bitrue said they were conducting a security review and temporarily halting withdrawals. The withdrawals feature was promised to resume on April 18.

\”All identified users affected by this incident will receive full compensation,\” the exchange representatives added.

According to Arkham, the damage from the hacker attack amounted to $24.2 million. Experts noted that the assets are stored at an address beginning with \”0x181\”. The unknown actor swapped the funds into 8858 ETH, but kept most of the SHIB and HOT.

Bitrue @BitrueOfficial has been exploited this morning for around $24.2M worth of tokens, mainly in QNT, GALA and SHIB.

The tokens currently reside in 0x181, having been swapped to 8.858K Ether.

Interestingly, the hacker has kept most of the SHIB and HOT.

Stay safe! https://t.co/SorQHYpWZf pic.twitter.com/5Otj45uwlE

— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) April 14, 2023

In June 2019, Bitrue suffered more than $4 million in losses—the hacker exploited a vulnerability in the platform’s risk-control system, gaining access to roughly 90 user accounts. He managed to withdraw assets in XRP and ADA.

In spring 2023, unknown attackers stole from the hot wallet of the South Korean bitcoin exchange GDAC digital currencies approximately $13 million, which accounted for ~23% of the platform’s total assets.

In 2022, the cumulative damage to the crypto industry from hacks, bankruptcies and other incidents exceeded $63.9 billion.