LONDON: Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Liquid said yesterday it was hit by hackers in a theft estimated at more than $94 million, the latest crypto platform to be targeted by cyber-criminals.
“We are sorry to announce that #LiquidGlobal warm wallets were compromised, we are moving assets into the cold wallet,” it said on Twitter, adding that deposits and withdrawals were suspended.
Liquid later said it was tracing the movement of the assets and working with other exchanges to freeze and recover funds.
“Warm” or “hot” digital wallets are usually based online and designed to allow users to access cryptocurrencies more easily. “Cold” wallets are offline and harder to access – and therefore typically more secure.
London-based blockchain analysis firm Elliptic said digital addresses identified by Liquid as belonging to the thief had received over $94m in digital coins, including around $31m in ether, $5m in bitcoin and $13m in XRP.
Some $45m in tokens connected to the Ethereum blockchain were also stolen.
The hacker (or hackers) is converting some of these tokens to the ether cryptocurrency via so-called decentralised - peer-to-peer - exchanges.
Elliptic said it was aiding Liquid in tracking the stolen funds.
Crypto platform Poly Network was at the centre of a $610m crypto theft last week, one of the biggest ever. Within days of the heist, the decentralised finance platform said the “white hat” hacker or hackers had returned nearly all the loot.
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