Over the years, one of the most common but unmentioned features of cryptocurrency exchanges is hacks. This has gone on to plague most of the supposedly secure exchanges and one of the biggest exchange hacks in crypto history is that of the Mt. Gox dual hack in 2011. At that time, the exchange was the world's leading trader of the BTC token. The attack occurred twice and up till now no one can fully explain what caused the attack and according to experts, the unresolved issues behind that attack would exist for a longer period of time.
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In this article, we will discuss some of the most recent crypto exchange attacks.
They include :
Bithumb Crypto Exchange Hack
This crypto trading platform at the time of the attack was the sixth largest crypto exchange based on trading volume. This hack saw a whopping $30 million worth of cryptocurrencies stolen from the exchange. As soon as this hack occurred, the exchange quickly halted all deposits and withdrawal and this was made known through its official Twitter account. As soon as the hack occurred, the crypto exchange began transferring all coins in their possession to a cold wallet to prevent further damages. The exchange has not fully explained the cause and how this attack occurred, but some have concluded that the hacker might have gotten access to a hot wallet that is connected to the internet. The exchange further revealed that it would cover all the loses to ensure that users are not affected.
This exchange happens to be the second largest in South Korea and the sixth largest in the world with a trading volume of over $330 million. This attack on this crypto exchange will be the second time a South Korean based exchange would be hacked. This crypto exchange hack greatly affected the price of cryptos in general and this is as a result of the large number of tokens that this exchange trades in a day. Some have reported that this exchange was why the top 10 major cryptocurrencies all experienced a slight fall in price.
Coinrail Crypto Exchange Hack
This is one of the most recent exchange hacks in the crypto sphere. This hack saw over $37 million worth of cryptocurrencies stolen. This exchange as at the time of this attack was ranked the 99th top exchange based on trading volume. This attack according to several sources saw the crypto market drop over $42 billion in market value. This crypto exchange like the Bithumb exchange is also a South Korean based exchange. According to reports, most of the stolen coins were either Astomcoin and Pundi X.
CoinCheck Crypto Exchange Hack
This crypto exchange hack happened at the beginning of this year and it saw a whopping $532 million worth of NEM tokens stolen. This hack greatly affected the crypto market in general but had a greater impact on the Japanese crypto market as it was one of the leading crypto exchanges in the country.
This hack saw only the NEM token stolen which is quite strange for an attack of that magnitude.