Crypto exchange KUCOIN has lost almost $200 million worth of cryptocurrencies in Ethereum, Bitcoin, Litecoin, XRP, Bitcoin Satoshi Vision, Stellar, TRON, and Tether following a major security breach.
KuCoin said it started to learn about the online heist after detecting large amounts of withdrawals on September 26th. The crypto exchange confirms that the theft only involves crypto assets stored in its hot wallets. Cryptocurrencies in cold storage are safe.
In a recent update, KuCoin Global CEO Johnny Lyu provides a list of addresses that were involved in suspicious transactions that have amounted to $190.9 million. Here’s a summary of the tokens that were stolen on KuCoin:
- $152.7 million in Ethereum (ETH) and Ethereum-based tokens
- $10.8 million in Bitcoin (1,008 BTC)
- $4.4 million in XRP (18,495,798 XRP)
- $1.2 million in Litecoin (26,733 LTC)
- $2.4 million in Bitcoin SV (14,713 BSV)
- $701,000 in Stellar (9,588,383 XLM)
- $4.7 million in Tron (TRX) and Tron-based tokens
- $14 million worth in Tether
The crypto exchange executive points to “private key leakage” as the reason for the outflow of the crypto assets.
KuCoin is currently working with international law enforcement to investigate the attack, Lyu says.
“We are in contact with many major crypto exchanges such as Huobi, Binance, OKEx, BitMax, and Bybit, as well as blockchain projects, security agencies, and law enforcement to work on this. Some effective measures have been taken, and we will update with more details soon.”
