Bitrue cryptocurrency exchange today disclosed that it had been the victim of a hot wallet breach, resulting in the theft of several cryptocurrency assets valued at around $23 million.
Bitrue has since responded by taking swift action to prevent further loss of funds and is conducting an investigation into the incident. The exchange has temporarily halted all withdrawals while it conducts additional security checks, which are expected to be completed by April 18, 2023. The company also pledged to provide complete compensation to all affected users.
1/4: We have identified a brief exploit in one of our hot wallets on 07:18 (UTC), 14 April 2023. We were able to address this matter quickly and prevented the further exploit of funds. We take this matter seriously and are currently investigating the situation. pic.twitter.com/QioPHSB2DM
— Bitrue (@BitrueOfficial) April 14, 2023
The attackers withdrew several assets, including ETH, QNT, GALA, SHIB, HOT, and MATIC, from the impacted hot wallet. However, Bitrue confirmed that the compromised hot wallet only contained less than 5% of its total funds, and the remaining wallets were safe and unaffected.
This is not the first time that Bitrue has suffered a security breach. In 2019, the company lost approximately $5 million worth of Ripple (XRP) and Cardano (ADA) tokens due to a flaw in its internal review procedures, which allowed the attackers to access customer accounts.
The hackers moved a total of 9.3 million XRP and 2.5 million ADA to various exchanges, resulting in a stolen amount of $4.5 million worth of XRP and $237,500 worth of ADA.
The exchange has since improved its security measures and disclosed the tracking information for the stolen funds. It also acknowledged Huobi, Bittrex, and ChangeNOW for freezing all accounts and funds linked to the cyber attack.
According to Chainalysis data, decentralized finance (DeFi) hacks accounted for 97% of all cryptocurrency stolen in the first quarter of 2022. This indicates a shift in hacker preference away from traditional centralized exchanges, with DeFi hacks increasing significantly over the past few years. In contrast, only 3% of the total amount of crypto stolen was from crypto exchange hacks.
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