BingX Hack Leads to $26M Theft Amid Rising Crypto Attacks

According to reports, the crypto exchange BingX lost over $26 million in various cryptocurrencies early Thursday morning. This incident further intensifies a concerning week for crypto platforms, as several hacks reveal vulnerabilities within the industry.

PeckShield, a blockchain security firm, first identified suspicious transactions around 00:37 UTC. Early reports indicated an outflow of approximately $13.6 million.

BingX Has Halted Withdrawals

Following this discovery, various crypto security organizations undertook a comprehensive review, confirming that BingX had been breached. The on-chain analysis company Lookonchain outlined the assets that were stolen, which comprised over 360 different altcoins. The misappropriated funds were quickly moved to the wallet address ‘0xF7e8’ and mostly converted into Ethereum (ETH) and BNB.

Read more: Crypto Project Security: A Guide to Early Threat Detection

A detailed summary of the stolen assets includes:

• 4.44 million USDT ($4.44 million),
• 1 million WUSD ($1 million),
• 608,660 USDC ($608,660),
• 9.38 BTCB ($590,000),
• plus various other tokens contributing to the significant total.

In response to the breach, Vivien Lin, BingX’s Chief Product Officer, confirmed the hack and announced the immediate suspension of all withdrawals to minimize further damage.

“Our technical team identified abnormal network access, leading us to suspect a hacker attack on BingX’s hot wallet. We promptly initiated our emergency protocol, involving urgent asset transfers and withdrawal suspension. The asset loss is minimal, but we are still assessing the total amount,” Lin posted on X (Twitter).

Despite the significant loss, Lin assured users that BingX would fully compensate for the stolen assets using its own capital. Additionally, she pledged that BingX would resume withdrawals within 24 hours. This rapid response seeks to restore user confidence and stabilize operations following the incident.

Moreover, this week’s hack at BingX exemplifies a broader trend of increased cybersecurity threats within the crypto space. Just earlier this week, DeltaPrime, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol on the Arbitrum chain, reported a loss of $5.9 million due to questionable transactions.

To add to the distress, the Indonesian exchange Indodax also experienced a major security breach last week, resulting in a loss exceeding $20 million. In each case, the breaches were uncovered by blockchain security firms after funds had been illicitly moved and converted across multiple networks.

Read more: A Guide to the Best AI Security Solutions in 2024

These repeated incidents have triggered calls for improved security measures across the cryptocurrency industry. Consequently, experts emphasize the necessity for exchanges and protocols to adopt robust security frameworks to guard against the sophisticated strategies employed by hackers today.