Federico Variola, the CEO of the recently hacked crypto exchange Phemex, has assured users that its cold wallets are unaffected by the exploit.
Blockchain analytics firm PeckShield confirmed the breach, which happened on January 23, 2024, resulted in the loss of over $68 million from the exchange’s wallets across multiple blockchains.
#PeckShieldAlert #Phemex has been hacked, resulting in a loss of ~$69.1M worth of cryptos.
Here is our latest summary of stolen #Phemex funds in multiple chains: https://t.co/O3GgZOccPJ pic.twitter.com/IdWDNcNZj7— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) January 24, 2025
Variola also announced the gradual restoration of USDT and USDC withdrawals, emphasizing that all requests would undergo manual security reviews. He added that Bitcoin withdrawals would resume soon, noting that BTC wallets were unaffected by the breach.
Hello all, we are progressively restoring USDT and USDC withdrawals, all reqs will be manually reviewed by our security team, so please be patient with the queue time.
We have also taken a snapshot of all users’ balances as of 12pm UTC for a reward for your support and loyalty,…— Federico0x @Phemex (@Federico0x) January 24, 2025
The Singapore-based crypto exchange is yet to disclose the exact mechanism and impact of the exploit but has confirmed that a compensation plan is in the works and will be shared in due course.
The hack has been dubbed the largest crypto heist of 2025 so far, as it has already surpassed the $21 million FortuneWheel exploit on the BNB Chain in early January.
PeckShield’s analysis revealed that the attackers, allegedly linked to North Korean hacking groups, siphoned off $69.1 million worth of assets across Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and Bitcoin networks. Among the stolen funds, Ethereum alone accounted for $20 million, including ETH and stablecoins. Solana losses reached $17 million, while $13 million in XRP and $5.3 million in Bitcoin were also compromised.
This attack continues a worrying trend in the crypto industry. According to data shared by PeckShield on January 9, over $3.01 billion in losses from hacks and scams was recorded in 2024, a 15% increase from 2023’s $2.61 billion in total losses. The analytics firm highlighted that over 70% of the total losses (over $2.15 billion) were due to hacks, with scams making up the remaining 30%($834.5 million. Approximately $488.5 million of the stolen funds were eventually recovered.
If you want to read more news articles like this, visit DeFi Planet and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and CoinMarketCap Community.
“Take control of your crypto portfolio with MARKETS PRO, DeFi Planet’s suite of analytics tools.”
