On Tuesday 12 September 2023, a significant security breach shook the cryptocurrency exchange, CoinEx, resulting in the theft of $55M. CoinEx revealed the detection of anomalous withdrawals from several wallets designated to secure the platform's assets. Our specialized investigative team was promptly deployed to probe the incident, uncovering a series of unauthorized transactions involving blockchains such as ETH, TRON, and Polygon. While the full extent of the losses is yet to be ascertained, data gleaned from blockchain analysis indicates that over $55 million worth of digital coins were drained from the exchange.
In response to the breach, CoinEx promptly suspended its deposit and withdrawal services, while also pledging complete compensation to users who incurred losses due to the hacking incident.
Subsequently, CoinEx issued a follow-up statement, in which they pinpointed and isolated the wallet addresses associated with the attack.
As of now, the exchange is in the process of evaluating the complete scope of cryptocurrency assets lost during the security breach. In an update provided the day after, they revealed the discovery of a second group of suspicious wallet addresses connected to the breach. These wallets were found to have illicitly transferred tokens including Ether, XRP, Solana, Kadena, and Dagger.
The investigation further shows that the cyberattack on the cryptocurrency exchange, CoinEx, has been attributed to the North Korean hacker group Lazarus. The hacker group was positively identified when it unintentionally disclosed an address that matched the one employed in previous hacks, including the Stake and Optimism incidents.
The Scorechain team will keep on monitoring the funds. More updates to come.
As cybercrime and the use of crypto in illicit activities continue to rise, blockchain analytics tools are essential for law enforcement agencies to combat these threats and for companies to avoid these activities in compliance with regulations.
Would you like to see how Scorechain’s blockchain analytics tools can help you avoid exposure to hacked funds and related money laundering risks? Request a free demo now.
About Scorechain
Scorechain provides a blockchain analytics and transaction monitoring platform for crypto assets. As a leader in crypto compliance, the Luxembourgish company has helped over 200 customers in 45 countries since 2015, ranging from cryptocurrency businesses to financial institutions with crypto trading, custody branch, digital assets, customers onboarding, audit and law firms, and some LEAs.
Scorechain’s platform provides identifying data and risk assessment for 30+ blockchains. The platform connects to different sources and block lists to provide risk scoring on crypto assets, transactions, addresses, and entities. The risk assessment methodology applied by Scorechain has been verified and is fully customizable to fit all jurisdictions. Customers can monitor infinite possibilities of risk scenarios with a wide range of parameters provided so businesses under the scope of the crypto regulation can report suspicious activity to authorities with enhanced due diligence.
