On Monday, August 4, 2023, one of the world’s leading crypto casinos Stake, owned by Australian Billionaire Ed Craven, reportedly experienced a massive $41 million hack across several blockchains.
Stake’s Alleged $41 Million Hack
The platform which allows users to deposit, bet on sports games, and play games with cryptocurrencies, experienced several unusual transactions which ultimately led to the alleged hack on Monday.
Blockchain security firm Peckshield noticed the unusual transactions and told Decrypt that the transfers looked suspicious, and went on to ask if the platform was under maintenance.
However, the betting platform later confirmed on X (formerly Twitter) a few hours later that the transactions were “unauthorized” which proved the company was hacked by someone, and the funds were moved to several wallets.
Three hours ago, unauthorised tx’s were made from Stake’s ETH/BSC hot wallets.
We are investigating and will get the wallets up as soon as they’re completely re-secured.
User funds are safe.
BTC, LTC, XRP, EOS, TRX + all other wallets remain fully operational.
— Stake.com (@Stake) September 4, 2023
According to data from Cyvers Alerts, which believes the alleged hack was related to a private key leak, the gambling firm first lost approximately $15.7 million in Ethereum, Tether, USDC, and Dai.
Not too long after the alert from Cyvers came, crypto investigator sleuth ZachXBT reported an hour later that another $25.6 million was lost from the Polygon and Binance Smart Chain network.
Furthermore, Cyvers highlighted that all the stolen funds have been converted to Ethereum (ETH) and distributed to multiple externally owned wallets.
In addition, Metamask Lead Product Manager and Security Expert Taylor Monahan posted a visual of the transactions made by the hackers to several wallets on X and commented that the Stake hackers are quite methodical.
Crypto hacks were rampant last year, as over $3.5 billion worth of cryptocurrency was lost to several attacks and hacks in 2022. However, during Q1 of 2023, the number dropped by 70% as the bear market raged on.
Crypto Casino Stake Resumes Operation Hours After The Attack
Following the attack, Beosin Alert has given a clear visual analysis of the total amount that was stolen from Stake, which was estimated at $41.35 Million across Ethereum (ETH), Polygon, and Binance Smart Chain.
However, the platform confirmed that its users’ funds are safe, since its Bitcoin (BTC), and Litecoin (LTC), were not compromised by the attack and remain intact. This led to the announcement made by the betting platform on X a few hours later after its alleged $41 million attack, that the platform would resume all services at 9:28 pm UTC time on Sept. 4.
“All services have resumed! Deposits & withdrawals are processing instantly for all currencies. We apologise for any inconvenience”, the betting platform stated.
The alleged attack is not the only challenge that the crypto casino has faced in 2023. The platform’s former business partner Christopher Freeman filed a lawsuit against Ed Craven and Tehrani in 2022 for theft of ideas and misconduct and sought over $400 million in damages.
However, the case is still pending as it was dismissed by the Federal Judge in Manhattan for jurisdiction reasons on June 27, 2023.
Total market cap drops to $1.019 trillion | Source: Crypto Total Market Cap on Tradingview.com