According to Peckshield, the hack was a simple issue of swapping out, swapping, and washing: Sheldon Xia, CEO of Bitmart, subsequently acknowledged the attack through Twitter as a “large-scale security compromise” affecting ETH and BSC hot wallets: “At the moment, we are currently determining the probable techniques employed. The hackers were able to remove around USD 150 million in 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
In what seems to be a recurring danger to the cryptocurrency ecosystem, cryptocurrency lending provider Celsius revealed a $50 million loss due to an abuse of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol BadgerDAO. The initial complaints of a security vulnerability involving BadgerDAO appeared on Dec. 02, with the protocol publicly declaring on Wednesday that it had received several exporters of illicit user cash withdrawals. Similarly to Bitmart, the Badger team proceeded to investigate the problem and suspended any smart contracts on the protocol to minimize future losses.
3/3 At this moment we are temporarily suspending withdrawals until further notice. We beg for your kind understanding and patience in this situation. Thank you very much.
— Sheldon Xia (@sheldonbitmart) December 5, 2021