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Liquid Exchange falls victim to a crypto hack

 


Once again, hackers manage to divert crypto assets in the upper double-digit million range from hot wallets on an exchange. This time it hits the Singapore exchange Liquid.

Yesterday evening, August 18th, hackers managed a million dollar coup. As the official account of the Liquid Exchange admitted this morning around 4 a.m. via Twitter, thieves were able to steal various crypto assets such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Tron (TRX) and XRP from wallets on the Exchange. The affected wallets are said to have exclusively been so-called hot wallets, i.e. online wallets which, in contrast to cold wallets, are significantly more susceptible to hacking attacks.


Liquid does not reveal how great the damage is. The Exchange does not provide any figures when asked. However, the addresses to which the hackers transferred the crypto assets are known:

It doesn't require any in-depth forensic skills to appreciate the value of the prey. The Bitcoin address currently has a total of 107.4 BTC with a total value of 4.8 million US dollars. Since the first entry to this address took place yesterday evening at the presumed time of the hack, it can be assumed that it is the stolen property.

Hackers get 107 BTC into their hands

The first inbound transaction also made up the bulk of the Bitcoin loot. The transaction was part of block 696418 , which was mined on August 18th at 10:04 pm. In this block alone, the hackers had transferred a total of 63 BTC, divided into 51 smaller transactions.


The stolen BTC is, however, a small item compared to the ether loot. Because with 14,944 ETH the thieves were able to withdraw an incredible 44.7 million US dollars in ETH from addresses on the Exchange. Of this, US $ 24 million comes from tokens such as Anchor (ANCT) or XENO NFT HUB (XNO).


Investigating the stealing TRX and XRP is a lot more difficult because the attackers split their loot among different addresses shortly after the hack. Various media reports unanimously that XRP and TRX worth around 10 million US dollars could be stolen.

In total, the damage amounts to at least 60 million US dollars. Since the crypto assets have been stolen from hot wallets on the Exchange, some customers might experience a rude awakening the next time they log in. At this point in time, it is still unclear whether the injured party will be compensated for their loss. Even when asked, Liquid did not comment on such intentions.

Stock exchanges remain uncertain

Since exchanges are repeatedly becoming victims of hacking, it is advisable to think about self-managed custody, also known as self-custody. Hardware wallets are particularly suitable for this, as they have no connection points with the Internet and are therefore much more secure than hot wallets. 


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