Cryptocurrency World’s Wintermute Loses $160M in Cyber ​​Heist • The Register

Cryptocurrency market maker Wintermute says it had $160 million worth of digital assets stolen in a cyber raid, though it assures customers everything is fine.

CEO Evgeny Gaevoy admitted on Twitter that Wintermute suffered from an “ongoing hack” that affected its decentralized finance (DeFi) operations, while its centralized finance and over-the-counter trading operations were unaffected.

“There will be some disruption to our services today and possibly over the next few days and then return to normal,” Gaevoy said. He added that funds are safe for clients with Wintermute market maker agreements and that the company, which provides liquidity in the crypto coin world and trades billions of dollars a day, is still financially solvent, “with a doubly such a high remaining amount of equity”.

That said, interestingly it is reported that according to blockchain records, Wintermute has more than $200 million in outstanding DeFi debt to various parties.

Gaevoy said 90 forms of digital assets totaling $160 million were captured by rogues in the attack. This includes USDC and USDT stablecoins worth $114 million reported.

As was the case with some past cryptocurrency theftsWintermute is treating the attack as a “white hat” operation, suggesting that if the attacker contacts the company, they will be prepared not to be prosecuted and might even let the thief keep some of their stolen money, when the rest is returned.

Self-proclaimed “on-chain sniffer dog” ZachXBT claims to have located the attacker’s Ethereum wallet with the precision and speed of Wintermute’s namesake. tweet his address just 11 minutes after Gaevoy’s first tweet announcing the hack. The stolen funds appear to still be in the wallet at the time of writing and it is unlikely that Wintermute or anyone else will be able to determine the responsible party from the wallet address alone.

The registry contacted Wintermute to find out more about the attack and whether the crook responded to his offer of amnesty.

Welcome to the club, Wintermute

That consensual hallucination That said, cryptocurrency has been well-secured by cybercriminals, who routinely sign off with tens of millions of dollars worth of tokens and coins in heists that are nearly impossible to solve.

Last month cryptocurrency bridge service was Nomad $190.7 million withdrawn Crypto tokens worth cross-chain transfers, while $320 million worth of Ethereum was stolen by bridge service Wormhole earlier this year. Criminals have posted more hacks online up to $600 millionwhich was stolen from the Ronin Bridge service in April.

Blockchain security company CertiK estimates that about $1.3 billion worth of cryptocurrencies were lost to hacks and fraud in 2021 alone, a 2,500 percent increase from 2020.

The FBI pushed Beware of DeFiand said that cybercriminals are “increasingly exploiting vulnerabilities in DeFi platforms to steal cryptocurrency, causing investors to lose money.”

According to the Feds warningNearly $1.3 billion was stolen from DeFi operations between January and March of this year – the equivalent of all of 2021. ®