AscendEX exchange hacked: around $80 million stolen from hot wallet

AscendEX, a cryptocurrency exchange, had a security breach that compromised its hot wallet, allowing hackers to transfer the funds out. Estimates by PeckShield, a blockchain security and data analytics company, show that the stolen funds amount to almost US$78 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

AscendEX confirmed that a number of Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Polygon tokens were transferred out of its hot wallet on 12th December, and also said that it had begun an investigation into the attack, and that its cold wallets were not affected.

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 said that it will cover any user funds affected by the compromise, which PeckSheild estimates is US$77.7 million, including US$60 million on Ethereum, US$9.2 million on BSC, and US$8.5 million on Polygon. Further, users’ assets that have not been impacted have been transferred to AscendEX’s cold wallets.

Bitmart hacked for $200 million on 5th December

Only last week, crypto exchange Bitmart was drained of almost US$200 million in a similar hack, with attackers exploiting a hot wallet compromise hosted over the Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain blockchains.

As detailed by PeckSheild, the hack was a “pretty straightforward: transfer-out, swap, and wash”.

Pretty straightforward: transfer-out, swap, and wash @sheldonbitmart pic.twitter.com/LyA03sbgCZ

— PeckShield Inc. (@peckshield) December 5, 2021