In the last 24 hours, the price of Bitcoin on the cryptocurrency exchange Livecoin rose to $220 000. Users suspect the platform of an exit scam. The Telegram account of Livecoin’s executive director has been deleted, and a message about a hack on the exchange appeared on the website.
At the same time, Ethereum’s price rose by 960% to $6,500 per token. Withdrawals from the platform are unavailable.
Data: Livecoin.net.
Update: The exchange’s site displayed a maintenance splash page. The platform became available again within a few minutes.
Update: Twitter user @yukio_staker noted that from the Livecoin address 285 ETH was moved. One of the addresses, to which Ethereum coins from Livecoin were deposited, was used by attackers during the recent EXMO exchange hack.
Also matched the address to which Bitcoins from both platforms were deposited:
Data: AMLBot.
Update: Representatives of Livecoin said that the exchange had undergone a “carefully planned attack, which had been in the works for several months.”
Data: Livecoin.net.
“We had completely lost control over the servers, the backend and the nodes. As a result, we were unable to stop the operation of our service. Our channels of communication with customers via social media were also compromised,” says the message on the site.
The exchange has now partially regained control over its frontend:
“We are fighting for the servers, the domain and your funds; our team is working around the clock. We are in contact with law enforcement authorities in our jurisdiction.”
Users are asked to stop using the service immediately: do not deposit funds to your addresses, do not trade, do not use the API.
Update: According to preliminary estimates, the attackers stole 106 BTC, 361 ETH and 236 BCH.
One user said that withdrawals of high-market-cap cryptocurrencies were disabled a day before the hack, and withdrawals of the rest were disabled several hours later.
Maria Stankevich, the chief development officer of the cryptocurrency exchange EXMO, said that Livecoin’s executive director Svetlana Geller today, 24 December, deleted her Telegram account:
“I wrote to Svetlana — there was a live account and it suddenly became deleted. We were in contact yesterday.”
Kuna founder Mikhail Chobanian did not rule out that the exchange became a victim of a hack. From Livecoin’s hot wallet 90 BTC were withdrawn.
Data: Telegram channel of Mikhail Chobanian.
In an unofficial Livecoin Telegram chat, users have already been asked not to deposit funds on the exchange until circumstances are clarified.
A few days earlier, ForkLog was contacted by representatives of the Veros FP project, who said they had fallen victim to fraudulent actions by Livecoin.
According to them, for three years Livecoin, using its own trading bots, placed orders to sell native VRS tokens that were not on the exchange’s balance. By creating an artificial price dump, the platform would then buy back tokens from users.
“To cover up the fraud, on December 21 Livecoin transferred all VRS tokens from ETH-addresses that were incorrectly specified at transfer
The total damage from the platform’s actions is estimated by the company at more than $800 000.
Veros FP claims that a similar fraudulent scheme has been used across most trading pairs on the exchange since 2014.
ForkLog reached out for comment to Livecoin representatives, but had not received a response by the time of writing.
Earlier, in February, users accused Livecoin of misappropriating “stolen” Monero. They said that days before the coin’s delisting the platform was trading XMR, yet deposits and withdrawals for the coin were closed.
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