U.K. crypto exchange hackers steal Bitcoin (BTC), XRP, Tether (USDT), Ether (ETH), and ETC worth more than $10M

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U.K. crypto exchange hackers steal Bitcoin (BTC), XRP, Tether (USDT), Ether (ETH), and ETC worth more than $10M

Hackers breached the Exmo crypto exchange and stole various cryptocurrencies.

Image by Aaron Olson from Pixabay

Wed, 23 Dec 2020, 13:01 pm UTC

A U.K.-based crypto exchange became the latest victim of hackers this week. The cybercriminals were able to breach the platform’s security and stole various cryptocurrencies that include Bitcoin (BTC), XRP, Tether (USDT), Ether (ETH), and Ethereum Classic (ETC).

Cryptocurrency exchange Exmo was attacked by hackers on Monday, December 21, 2020, at approximately 2:27:02 UTC, according to Bitcoin.com. The platform was alerted of the hack when it “detected suspicious withdrawal activity.”

Exmo’s security audit report was able to detect large withdrawals of Bitcoin and five other cryptocurrencies. It was later confirmed that the hack affected six out of the 57 cryptocurrencies supported by the platform, which included Bitcoin (BTC), XRP, Tether (USDT), Ether (ETH), and Ethereum Classic (ETC), Coindesk reported.

Most of the Bitcoin stolen by the hackers was sent to an address that now has 306.99 BTC, worth over $7,200,000. The crypto exchange added that the hack affected around 5 percent of its total crypto assets but also confirmed that only assets in its hot wallets were breached.

“The affected hot wallets comprise near 5% of the total assets,” Exmo wrote in its incident report. “Let us stress that all the assets in the cold wallets are safe.”

It is estimated that the crypto exchange lost around $10.5 million in cryptocurrencies due to the breach. The company released a list of crypto addresses and has asked the assistance of other exchanges to block the accounts.

The crypto exchange also assured clients affected by the hack that the firm will shoulder the losses. “Most importantly, we want to assure you that if any user fund is affected by this incident, it will be covered completely by Exmo,” the platform said.

Authorities are also investigating the hacking incident. “We reported the case to the London police this morning and keep in touch with the cybercrime team there,” Exmo explained. “We [will] also conduct a thorough security review that will include all parts of our systems and data.”

Exmo said that client and transaction data was not accessed by the hackers as the platform’s production servers were not compromised. Withdrawals and deposits are still deactivated but will likely be reinstated in the next few days.

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