BitMart Confirms $150M Crypto Theft

BitMart, a cryptocurrency exchange, has been robbed of at least $150 million in cryptocurrency. Peckshield, a blockchain security firm, announced the theft on social media on Saturday night, claiming that digital currency worth $196 million was stolen.

Peckshield claimed that a hacker stole $96 million in cryptocurrency from the Binance Smart Chain and $100 million in cryptocurrency from the Ethereum blockchain. It was reported that the incident resulted in the theft of more than 20 tokens, including Binance, Safemoon, and Shiba Inu.

To hide their digital footprints, the hacker is said to have used DEX aggregator to convert stolen assets to Ethereum before sending the money through Tornado Cash, a non-custodial privacy solution. On Sunday, Sheldon Xia, the founder and CEO of BitMart, announced that the company had experienced a security breach, which was “primarily caused by a stolen private key that compromised two of our hot wallets.”

Nominet’s government cybersecurity expert, Steve Forbes, said that it’s no surprise that cybercriminals are targeting cryptocurrency exchanges. They are, in many ways, the new banks, making this a modern version of a bank robbery with arguably less risk and effort. With so much attention paid to the use of cryptocurrency for nefarious purposes in the media, I imagine these criminals are hoping to avoid attracting law enforcement’s attention.