The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned two individuals and one entity involved in a network laundering millions of dollars in illicit funds for North Korea. Lu Huaying and Zhang Jian, based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), used a UAE-based front company to facilitate money laundering and...Read More
A new wave of crypto scams has emerged, with attackers using fake X accounts to impersonate popular influencers and lure unsuspecting users into fraudulent Telegram groups. Users are then manipulated into installing malware that compromises crypto wallet data. Scammers Moving Beyond Simple Phishing Scams According to blockchain security firm Scam Sniffer, the scammers comment on legitimate...Read More
Charles Hoskinson, the founder of IOG – the organization between the Cardano ecosystem, has informed that the Cardano Foundation’s X account has been compromised by bad actors. They posted a tween about an SEC lawsuit, claiming that the Foundation will cease its support for ADA. The false statement begins by explaining that the US Securities...Read More
Decentralized exchange (DEX) Clipper experienced a security incident at 4 am UTC on December 1, targeting its liquidity pools on Optimism and Base. Chaofan Shou, co-founder of security firm Fuzzland, initially attributed the exploit to a private key leak, allowing the attacker to authorize deposit and withdrawal transactions. Clipper, however, has refuted this explanation, stating...Read More
In November 2024, hacks accounted for an overwhelming 99.96% of total losses. During the same period, fraud and rug pulls fell significantly, contributing to just $25,300 in total losses across two incidents. According to the latest report by Immunefi shared with CryptoPotato, decentralized finance (DeFi) was the primary victim, with $71 million in total losses...Read More
Federal prosecutors in the United States have filed charges against five individuals accused of carrying out a complex phishing and hacking operation that targeted employees of companies across the country. According to authorities, the scheme led to the theft of intellectual property, sensitive corporate data, and millions of dollars in cryptocurrency, including $6.3 million stolen...Read More
South Korean investigators revealed that the 2019 Upbit cryptocurrency heist, which resulted in the theft of $50 million worth of ETH, was carried out by North Korean hacking groups Lazarus and Andariel, linked to the Reconnaissance General Bureau, which happens to be DPRK’s premiere intelligence organization. Upbit, one of South Korea’s leading crypto exchanges, first...Read More
The number of hacks in Q3 2024 has dropped to its lowest point in three years, with only 28 incidents, across which a total of $463.6 million was stolen. However, the overall outlook remains concerning as there’s no chance of recovering over $440 million of the stolen funds. Worst Recovery Rates Ever According to the...Read More
The person behind 2023’s Euler Finance hack has congratulated the Penpie exploiter after the latter moved the bulk of the funds they stole to Tornado Cash. The Penpie thief transferred the money even as the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform pleaded for the funds to be returned in exchange for a bounty. The $27M Penpie Protocol...Read More
Last month, the crypto space experienced $313 million in losses due to over ten different hacks. Of the total stolen funds, 93.5% were lost in two large phishing attacks that occurred during that time. August Cases According to a post by blockchain security firm PeckShield, the two incidents combined for a loss of about $293.4...Read More
Several French government websites have been taken offline due to a denial-of-service (DDoS) attack reportedly connected to different hacker groups in retaliation for Telegram founder Pavel Durov’s arrest on the weekend. The 39-year-old exec was taken into custody under an arrest warrant alleging that his platform has been involved in money laundering, drug trafficking, and...Read More
Binance has announced that its security team has successfully recovered or frozen more than $73 million in user funds from external hacks as of July 31 this year. This latest figure exceeds the roughly $55 million recovered in all of 2023. Binance’s 2024 Security Efforts As per the official press release shared with CryptoPotato, Binance...Read More
In response to the devastating $230 million security breach, WazirX revealed that it has filed a formal police complaint and is exploring additional legal avenues to hold those responsible accountable. Immediate actions include reporting the incident to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In). WazirX’s Comprehensive Action Plan In...Read More
Over $35 million in stolen funds from the infamous $305 million DMM Bitcoin hack have been laundered via Huione Guarantee, an online marketplace operated by the Cambodian conglomerate Huione Group. It is interesting to note that this platform is part of a company linked to the Cambodian ruling family and has emerged as a significant...Read More
Popular crypto privacy protocol Railgun has successfully thwarted Inferno Drainer’s latest effort to launder stolen funds, which were sent back to the original wallet’s address. According to a July 10 post by SlowMist’s anti-money laundering tracking system, MistTrack on X, an attempt to launder over 174 ETH, worth around $533,000 at the time, was intercepted...Read More
On July 11, blockchain security firm PeckShield reported that the website of Compound Finance (compound[.]finance) had been compromised. “Do not interact with the website until further notice,” it warned. The incursion was also reported by blockchain sleuth ‘ZachXBT’ on his investigations Telegram channel. The Compound Finance website seems to “potentially be hijacked,” he said before adding,...Read More
Wallets linked to the CoinStats exploiter recently moved almost $1 million in Ether into the controversial crypto mixing protocol Tornado Cash. The latest development comes less than a week after the leading crypt tracker said that investigations are underway. Tornado Cash Inflow Blockchain security firm CertiK flagged that two wallets associated with the CoinStats exploit...Read More
Crypto-friendly financial institution Evolve Bank and Trust was embroiled in a massive data breach. The bank admitted it had been aware of the incident, which involved the theft of 33 terabytes of user data. While Evolve Bank maintained that customer funds appear to remain untouched, they admitted that the hackers likely managed to download sensitive...Read More
Losses from hacks and rug pulls in 2024 year-to-date amount to over $473 million across 108 incidents, according to Immunefi’s latest data. This marks a 20% decrease compared to the same period in 2023, which saw losses of more than $595 million. In May 2024, victims of hacks and fraud lost $52.4 million across 21...Read More
Sam Kazemian, founder of Frax Finance, has alleged that an inside job at X was responsible for the hack of the project’s official account. The breach, which occurred on June 1, led to the decentralized stablecoin protocol behind FRAX USD losing access to its X account. Frax Finance Hack In a Telegram post dated June...Read More
According to blockchain security firm CertiK, the cryptocurrency sector lost $42.6 million in May to exploits, flash loans, and exit scams. Despite these setbacks, approximately $96.2 million was recovered, offering some relief from the economic impact. Flash Loan Attacks Dominate Blockchain Losses Flash loan attacks caused the largest losses in the crypto sector, totaling approximately...Read More
Japanese cryptocurrency trading platform – DMM Bitcoin – fell victim to a hack resulting in a massive loss of Bitcoin worth around $305 million on May 31st. The exchange confirmed the attack and revealed that 4,502.9 bitcoins were drained from their systems. DMM Bitcoin has not provided additional details regarding the breach but stated that...Read More
Web3 gaming project Gala Game was exploited by an unknown attacker, who was described as a compromised or rogue admin address, minted 5 Billion GALA, worth more than $200 million. The security incident has since been contained while the affected wallet has been frozen. The team also said that the exploit was an isolated incident...Read More
A confidential United Nations report obtained by Reuters reveals that North Korea’s notorious cybercriminal group known as the Lazarus Group transferred millions of stash of stolen cryptocurrency back to the Asian country last year. In March 2023, these North Korean hackers illicitly took $147.5 million worth of cryptocurrency from HTX, a crypto exchange owned by...Read More
Solana-based meme coin launchpad Pump.fun announced that a former employee used their “privileged position” to access “withdraw authority” and misappropriated around 12,300 SOL, worth approximately $1.9 million at the time. To prevent further damage, Pump.fun halted trading and updated the contracts. Flash Loan Exploit Addressing the exploit, Pump.fun said in an X post that a...Read More
The crypto whale who lost $71 million worth of wrapped bitcoins (WBTC) via a dusting attack has recovered the stolen funds after negotiations with the hacker. According to a tweet by blockchain security firm PeckShield, the scammer began returning the funds on May 9 and completed the process on May 11. Stealing $71M WBTC The...Read More
The leading blockchain security firm, CertiK, released its latest report revealing a significant downturn in losses from crypto-related hacks and scams as April concludes. Noting a notable decrease, CertiK stated April saw approximately $25.7 million lost to exploits, hacks, and scams. This figure marks a decline of 141% from the previous month’s losses, demonstrating a...Read More
Crypto privacy protocol Railgun has denied accusations that it is being used by North Korea and other United States-sanctioned entities to launder digital assets. This development comes as the crypto privacy protocol nears $1B total volume. Railgun Denies Lazarus Group Association Responding to claims made by crypto reporter Colin Wu through an X post, Railgun...Read More
The first quarter of 2024 witnessed over $824 million across 67 hacks as bad actors became more active in targeting high-profile individuals and projects. According to the latest Hacken report shared with CryptoPotato, breaches in access control emerged as the most frequent category of hacks in terms of both frequency and financial impact, with $682...Read More
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reportedly issued a subpoena to obtain personal information from attendees of a Bitcoin core developer event in 2022. The move came to light through Mike Schmidt, co-founder of the Bitcoin non-profit Brink, who stated that the subpoena is related to allegations made by BTC developer and co-founder of...Read More
