Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx Global suffered a security breach on Tuesday, resulting in an estimated loss of US$43 million in cryptocurrencies.

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Fast facts

  • The exchange is still assessing the full extent of lost crypto assets in the exploit but said on Wednesday morning that it identified a second set of suspicious wallet addresses linked to the breach, which siphoned off tokens such as Ether, XRP, Solana, Kadena and Dagger.
  • Before CoinEx’s latest update, Blockchain security firm PeckShield said on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday estimated the exchange’s loss to be around US$43 million. The first set of addresses linked to the hack identified by CoinEx stole Ether, Bitcoin and Tron from the platform.
  • CoinEx said a notice shared on its X account on Tuesday following the attack that all user assets are safe and secure. The exchange has suspended deposit and withdrawal services and assured that affected users will receive full compensation for any losses caused by the hack.
  • Hackers stole more than US$3.8 billion in cryptocurrencies last year, according to blockchain forensics firm Chainalysis. Out of that amount, North Korea-backed cyber actors hacked US$1.7 billion.

See related article: Crypto hackers stole record US$3.8 bln in 2022, mostly from DeFi and cross-chain bridges: Chainalysis