Crypto exchange AscendEX (formerly BitMax) has joined the list of exchanges to succumb to a hack this year. Crypto hacks have ramped up in 2021 across both centralized and decentralized, supposedly spurred on by the bull rally which tends to correlate with higher attacks from bad actors. Exchanges have lost billions of dollars to these hacks that continue to rock the space.
These crypto hacks have done a number of investors who are mostly the hardest hit when these attacks are successful. In the case of AscendEX, the hackers made off with approximately $78 million in crypto after breaching the crypto exchange’s hot wallet.
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PeckShield Reports Hack
PeckShield had posted about the AscendEX breach on Twitter in the early hours of Sunday. The post included a rundown of all of the stolen assets which spanned across three blockchains. The blockchain security company had also reported on the BitMart crypto exchange hack in which hackers had made off with $200 million in stolen funds.
AscendEX’s hack saw Ethereum assets hit the hardest as about $60 million worth of crypto was stolen, while Binance Chain assets stolen came out to a total of $9.2 million. Assets from the Polygon blockchain were also stolen in the hack to the tune of $8.5 million.
Estimated loss @AscendEX_Global: $77.7M in total ($60M on @ethereum $9.2M @BinanceChain $8.5M @0xPolygon). Here is the list of the transferred-out assets and their amounts on @ethereum pic.twitter.com/VC4DKOwu4f
— PeckShield Inc. (@peckshield) December 12, 2021
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AscendEX also took to Twitter to address the hack. It confirmed in a post that the exchange had indeed succumbed to an exploit. The tweet noted that the exploit had taken place on Saturday at 22:00 UTC and assured users that although the hot wallet had been compromised, the cold wallet remained untouched.
22:00 UTC 12/11, We have detected a number of ERC-20, BSC, and Polygon tokens transferred from our hot wallet. Cold Wallet is NOT affected. Investigation underway. If any user’s funds are affected by the incident, they will be covered completely by AscendEX.
— AscendEX (@AscendEX_) December 12, 2021
AscendEX Users Are Covered
After news of the hack circulated, users were rightfully worried about the safety of their coins and what would happen to AscendEX users that were affected by the exploit. The crypto exchange assured users that other wallets were safe but for users who were affected, they would be covered 100%.
Additionally, the exchange had moved all of the unaffected assets from its hot wallets to its cold wallets to keep them safe as they continued to investigate the breach. Deposits and withdrawal services have also been restricted on the exchange pending the investigation and restoration of the platform to a safe enough space for users to transact on. After the security review is completed, users will once again be able to carry out these activities.
Related Reading | Hackers Cart Away $200 Million From BitMart In Multi-Chain Exploit
Director of sales and business development at AscendEX, Jay Kubert, also assured affected users of reimbursement of stolen assets.
https://twitter.com/jkubes652/status/1469926782337961989?s=20
The crypto exchange has assured users that only a small portion of the total holdings was affected by the attack. Other wallets and assets remain untouched and are safe.
Featured image from usanewzz, chart from TradingView.com