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Hacked: $1.35 Million Stolen from Taylor Cryptocurrency Trading App

Osato Avan-Nomayo · @3rdPesinSingula | May 29, 2018 | 22:30

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Taylor, the cryptocurrency trading app, reportedly suffered a cyber attack on May 22nd. According to a post on the app’s Medium account, a hacker stole all of the funds raised by the project’s ICO as well as the native TAY tokens. There are indications that the same hacker was responsible for the CypheriumChain attack that took place in March. This is the latest in a series of hacks gripping the cryptocurrency market in 2018.

Details of the Taylor App Hack

Based on the reports released thus far, the hacker stole 2,579.98 ETH ($1.35 million) raised by the project during its recently conducted ICO. The attacker also carted away the native TAY tokens held in the team and bounty pools. Only the tokens domiciled in the founders’ and advisors’ pools were saved from the attack. The hacker couldn’t access those funds because of the vesting contract which renders them inaccessible for the time being.

The Taylor team also said the suspected hacker attempted dumping the tokens on the IDEX platform. Thus, the team instructed IDEX to delist TAY tokens until the matter is resolved. Commenting on the attack, the team said that:

We are still investigating the cause and source of the hack. We still cannot disclose much information right now. What we can say is that it was not a smart contract exploit. Somehow the hacker got access to one of our devices and took control of one of our 1Password files.

Plans for the Future

In a personal blog post on Medium, Fabio Seixas, the co-founder and CEO of Taylor, said that:

It turns out we have been hacked and lost almost all of our funds. We now have only about $25,000. To be honest, it doesn’t even pay this month’s bills. This incident forced us to stop, step back and think about the future.

The first point of action considered by the Taylor team is replacing the stolen TAY tokens. The hacker reportedly stole about 7 percent of the total token supply.

The new tokens will be sent to every address that had balance at the block number 5663273, except the hacker’s addresses. This action is necessary to keep a fair environment and distribution for token holders.

By analyzing the transactions made by the hacker, the Taylor team believes it the same person, or group of people, responsible for the CypheriumChain hack. The ether wallet used by the suspected hacker is the same for both attacks. The team also said the matter had been reported to the police and there is an ongoing investigation.

Do you think the hack is a genuine case of theft or is it another ICO exit scam? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.

Images courtesy of Etherscan, iStock, and Shutterstock.