$13.5 Million Stolen by Hacker from Bancor Cryptocurrency Exchange
Published on July 10, 2018
- Israeli-based cryptocurrency exchange Bancor revealed that approximately $13.5 million of cryptocurrency was stolen by a hacker.
- The theft occurred yesterday at 00:00 UTC after the company’s cryptocurrency wallets were hacked into and the currency was transferred to a personal wallet.
- While it is not possible for the company to freeze the cryptocurrency, Bancor is working with other exchanges to make it difficult for the stolen funds to be withdrawn.
Bancor, one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges based in Israel revealed that over $13.5 million worth of cryptocurrency was stolen following a security breach. The incident occurred on July 9 at 00:00 UTC, after hacker(s) broke into the cryptocurrency wallet of the company and transferred the coins to a private wallet.
The exchange announced earlier today “This morning (CEST) Bancor experienced a security breach. No user wallets were compromised. To complete the investigation, we have moved to maintenance and will be releasing a more detailed report shortly. We look forward to being back online as soon as possible.”
This morning (CEST) Bancor experienced a security breach. No user wallets were compromised. To complete the investigation, we have moved to maintenance and will be releasing a more detailed report shortly. We look forward to being back online as soon as possible.
— Bancor (@Bancor) July 9, 2018
The incident comes off as a surprise to many because of how complex Bancor’s system is. The exchanger relies on smart contacts that run on the Ethereum platform which move funds faster than most other exchange platforms. The hacker managed to withdraw 24,984 Ethereum (ETH) and an additional 229,356,645 Pundi X (NPXS) which add up to $13.5 million in value. The hacker also stole 3,200,000 Bancor tokens (BNT) which amount to $10 million but the company has a security measure in place that allowed them to freeze the funds and the hacker will not be able to cash the cryptocurrency out. However, the Ethereum and Pundi X cryptocurrencies cannot be frozen, and Bancor is working with other exchanges to trace down the stolen funds and make it difficult for them to be liquidated.
The exchange revealed that user wallets were not compromised and only company reserves were affected. Details on how the exchange was hacked were not revealed. The exchange will be unavailable for use until the vulnerability is patched. Over $1.1 Billion of cryptocurrency has already been stolen this year and sold on the dark web, and this incident adds to the ever-rising figure.
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