Cryptocurrency: a $200 million heist

Cryptocurrency marketplace BitMart suffered a security breach, which allowed hackers to steal $200 million from it.

On Saturday 4 December 2021, BitMart, a cryptocurrency exchange platform, announced that a security breach had allowed hackers to fraudulently withdraw $150 million in cryptocurrency from two wallets, Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain. BitMart then immediately suspended the deposit and withdrawal of assets from all its wallets.

This Monday 7 December 2021, BitMart clarified that the breach was « primarily caused by a stolen private key, » and reassessed the losses at $200 million. The hackers then reportedly used 1inch and Tornado Cash to exchange the stolen coins for other cryptocurrencies to make it harder to trace them.

« The other assets on BitMart are safe and unharmed. BitMart will use its own funds to cover the incident and compensate affected users, » the marketplace said. The theft is the sixth largest in the history of cryptocurrencies.