Bitmart Exchange Hacked: $200 Million Allegedly Stolen

Bitmart has confirmed that it was hacked, with early estimations indicating that the total amount swiped is around $200 million in various cryptocurrencies. Sheldon Xia, founder and CEO of the exchange, asserted that the company has temporarily suspended withdrawals.

• Users on Twitter started to complain about a possible security breach against Bitmart earlier on December 5th before the company confirmed the news hours later.
• The statement described the event as a “large-scale security breach” related to one of the hot Ethereum (ETH) wallets and one of the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) hot wallets.
• The company promised that the funds contained in those two addresses are a “small percentage of assets on Bitmart” and all other wallets are “secure and unharmed.”
• Initially, Bitmart noted that the hackers were able to swipe around $150 million worth of several cryptocurrencies.
• However, another report from the blockchain security and data analytics resource PeckShield, showed that the amount is actually around $200 million – $100 million on Ethereum and $96 million on BSC. The company also provided a list of the affected assets.

Total estimated loss: ~200M (~100M on @ethereum and ~96M on @BinanceChain ). (Previously we only counted the loss on @ethereum). And here is the list of affected assets/amounts on @BinanceChain pic.twitter.com/cXXApDFtd7

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

• Although Bitmart ultimately confirmed the hack and Sheldon Xia said all withdrawals are temporarily suspended, this was not the case initially.
• PeckShield showed several chats on Telegram, in which an admin from Bitmart refuted the allegations that the exchange was hacked.