On March 29, Bithumb, the South Korea cryptocurrency exchange confessed that hackers had stolen nearly $19 million of cryptocurrency. The Primitive Ventures’ Wan broke the news over social media that the hackers had created new accounts and wherein they had transferred around 3 million EOS (-$13 million) and 20 million XRP (-$6 million).
The hackers there then distributed the stolen digital assets via ChangeNow, a nin-custodial crypto swap platform that does not require the KYC account. They exchanged the digital assets to their different accounts that comprised of Huobi, HitBTC, WB, and EXmo.
It is not for the first time, but Bithumb has been hacked several times. For instance, the popular cryptocurrency was hacked in June 2018, and the hackers stole around $31 million, and in the year 2017, the hackers managed to take an EOS worth $1 million from multiple wallets that belonged to its users. In the reports, it is found that the private key for access of EOS hot wallet of Bithumb was stolen (address, g4ydomrxhege) that allowed the hackers gain access and transfer the amount to their address, “ifguz3chmamg.”
Online there is an image shared by Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance cryptocurrency exchange who schematically explained how the stealing process takes place from Bithumb.
This is how the exchange and stolen assets are distributed to accounts of hackers on various exchanges:
EXMO: 662,600
Huobi: 263,605
Changelly 143,511
KuCoin: 96,270
CoinSwitch: 38,725
Bithumb is sure that the hack has taken place with the help of an insider who has provided all the information to the hackers and the report of the breach has been given to security firm of Korea Internet and Security Agency (KISA) and cyber police. However, after the significant loss, the company said that it is working over major cryptocurrency exchanges so that it can at least meet the currency that is lost. Last year, Bithumb managed to recover half the amount of stolen funds.
