In Brief:
- AscendEX lost around $77.7 million worth of crypto assets after a hack.
- Tokens stolen from Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Polygon are worth $60M, $9.2M, and $8.5M respectively.
- AscendEX announced it will refund all the cash taken from the users who were affected.
Cryptocurrency exchange AscendEX suffered a hack and lost around $77.7 million worth of crypto assets.
According to the security and blockchain auditing firm, Peckshield Inc, the hack attack targeted the hot wallets of three blockchain platforms.
Tokens stolen from Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Polygon are $60M, $9.2M, and $8.5M respectively.
Large amounts of stablecoins like tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) were stolen, as well as greater amounts of lesser-known tokens like taraxa (TARA) and smaller amounts of more well-known coins like Shiba Inu (SHIB), aave (AAVE), and compound (COMP).
Although AscendEX hasn’t disclosed official estimates on the losses, Etherscan does provide raw data for those interested in tracing the transactions involved in the attack.
It’s unknown how the attack happened, but one thing is certain that cold wallets remain unaffected.
Most user funds are stored in cold wallets by reputable and trusted exchanges, with a small amount kept in custodial hot wallets for withdrawals. Because funds are easily available online, hot wallets make it easier to make online purchases.
AscendEX released a statement about the incident, including the steps it will undertake.
First of all, Ascendex will refund all the cash taken from the users who were affected.
The crypto exchange shifted non-affected assets to cold wallets and has since halted user withdrawals and deposits.
The firm responded that it’s looking into how this hack happened and who might be responsible.
AscendEX stated that it is already collaborating with blockchain forensic firms and law enforcement to figure out what exactly happened and to prevent the stolen cash from moving freely between exchanges.
Around three big hack attacks have occurred in the crypto industry in the previous 15 days, and, astonishingly, not only decentralized but also centralized exchanges have been targeted. A few days back, crypto exchange Bitmart lost nearly $150 million in a security breach related to hot wallets hosted over the Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain blockchains.
