KuCoin, one of the most recognized cryptocurrency exchanges in Singapore, announced the hack of its platform with the theft of more than $150 million in Bitcoin. In response to the incident, several project partners are working collaboratively to replenish affected funds.
After the large-scale hack that KuCoin recently suffered, where more than 150 million dollars in cryptocurrencies, , the Bitcoin (BTC) and various tokens ERC-20, project partners such as Velo Labs, VIDT_Datalink, Silent Notary and several others, announced the issuance of new tokens to replace the affected tokens. The tokens involved during the hack will be invalidated by their issuers.
KuCoin reported that the VELO, VIDT, SNTR, ORN, COV, KAI tokens, and several other tokens lost in the attack, represent a small portion of its total holdings. Furthermore, the exchange noted that all funds are covered by its insurance fund, which was established in 2018. Thanks to this, the affected tokens will be reissued, and the tokens transferred to the hackers' addresses will become invalid. KuCoin partners issued several statements in this regard, stating that the total supply of tokens will not be affected at all by the security breach. Likewise, the necessary audits will be carried out to mitigate the risk of a similar situation arising again in the future.
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Incident report
The large-scale hack that hit KuCoin recently allowed hackers to make off with over $150 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) and several ERC-20 tokens, which were held in hot wallets (hot wallets) that are connected to the exchange. The funds were transferred to several unknown addresses outside the exchange, which were exposed by the exchange to alert other cryptocurrency and digital asset exchanges.
At the time of release KuCoin announced that the reason for the incident was unknown, but a few hours later, its CEO Johnny Lyu offered details of what happened in a transmission live. According to Lyu's explanations, the hackers found several of the private keys associated with their hot wallets, allowing the funds to be withdrawn. However, funds stored in cold wallets (cold wallets) are completely safe, the CEO announced.
Likewise, to reassure exchange users, Lyu announced that:
“Rest assured, if any user funds are affected by this incident, KuCoin and our insurance fund will fully cover them.”
For its part, the internal security team paralyzed all withdrawals and deposits from the exchange, to begin the relevant investigations until the whereabouts of those responsible for the hack were found. As of this publication, the exchange announced that Orion (ORN) has completed the token swap and trading is now available. It is estimated that KuCoin operations could fully resume within a week at most.
Investigations and rewards
KuCoin is offering a reward of $100 to those who can provide valid information about those responsible or the whereabouts of the funds. The exchange also alerted all cryptocurrency exchanges about the incident to block the stolen cryptocurrencies and tokens from being exchanged within their services.
“We have been in contact with a growing number of crypto platforms, including Binance, Huobi, OKEx, Bybit, Upbit, Bibox, Gate, MXC, BitMax, BigONE, BKEX, BitZ, HBTC, Hoo, Crypto.com, Bingbon, Renrenbit, LBank, Max/Maicoin, CoinW and more to block suspicious addresses and track affected funds. Thank you all for your quick action and support.”
Likewise, Lyu emphasized that the exchange is taking the necessary measures to investigate the security breach. To date, KuCoin technical staff, the police, several blockchain analysis firms, and other security and regulatory agencies are tracking every move made with these assets.
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