Reports reaching us at Bitcoinist are that the Justin Sun-led Poloniex crypto exchange has been hacked and the attackers are currently siphoning funds away from the exchange at an alarming rate. So far, over $60 million in crypto is suspected to be already stolen spanning digital assets such as Tron (TRX), Pepe (PEPE), and Magic (MAGIC), among others.
Poloniex Crypto Exchange Under Attack
The attack was first brought to light by Peckshield which noticed unusual transactions from wallets linked to Poloniex. The blockchain security firm then took to X (formerly Twitter) to point out the transactions to the crypto exchange.
Hi @Poloniex, you may want to take a look: @justinsuntron https://t.co/UobItZ9FpO
— PeckShield Inc. (@peckshield) November 10, 2023
Poloniex did not acknowledge the attack but had updated the community that it had frozen its wallet for maintenance. However, it was a little too late as the attackers had already made off with a significant amount of assets.
Breaking: Justin Sun’s Poloniex exchange (0xA9…22ba) was suspected of being stolen, and the loss of assets may exceed 60 million US dollars.
Poloniex stated that the exchange wallet has been disabled for maintenance and will be updated once the wallet is re-enabled.…
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) November 10, 2023
Tron founder and owner of Poloniex exchange, Justin Sun has chimed in on the event and has assured the community that the crypto exchange “maintains a healthy financial position.” As for the Poloniex users who were affected by the attack, Sun has assured them that they will all be duly reimbursed for their losses.
We are currently investigating the Poloniex hack incident. Poloniex maintains a healthy financial position and will fully reimburse the affected funds. Additionally, we are exploring opportunities for collaboration with other exchanges to facilitate the recovery of these funds.
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The tokens that have recorded the most losses so far include GLM in which the attackers stole over $2.58 million, Chainlink’s LINK with $2.4 million, and 0X with over $2.29 million stolen. The wallet had held around $67 million before the attack. But reports show that there is less than $4 million sitting in the wallet right now.
Crypto educator and YouTuber Wise Advice took to X to warn their over 130,000 followers to remove their funds from the exchange. “It seems like the hacker first drained all the assets and then used it to buy #TRX causing it to pump over 15%. If you have funds on it, withdraw it immediately.”
Details of the exploit are still unfolding and this report will be updated as more information is gathered. Be safe.