A few days after being hacked and drained for $5.4 million worth of digital assets, the European cryptocurrency exchange Eterbase claimed that it had tracked part of the stolen funds to Binance, Huobi, and HitBTC.
The company asked for assistance from those exchanges and reassured its users that Eterbase will endure.
Launched in 2019, Eterbase is a relatively small Slovakia-based platform that describes itself as “the first regulation-compliant European cryptocurrency exchange.”
On September 8th, the company announced on its Telegram channel that several of its hot wallets had been compromised. Those included the Bitcoin, Ehereum, Tron, Tezos, Algorand, and Ripple addresses.
Initially, Eterbase didn’t disclose further details besides that it has started an investigation. However, the exchange later admitted that the total amount stolen equaled $5.4 million worth of cryptocurrencies.
Eterbase also noted that it had informed law enforcement agencies, and they started a joint investigation.
Despite the adverse developments, the company reassured that “our operations will continue,” after several renowned global companies completed a security audit.
Eterbase also cautioned its users that “we have enough capital to meet all our obligations, and at the same time, we want to reassure everyone that this event won’t stop our journey.”
The company revealed earlier today that the investigation has resulted in tracking a “big part” of the stolen funds to three popular cryptocurrency exchanges – Binance, Huobi, and HitBTC.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) was the first to respond. He asserted that “our security team was on this quite early. Will do what we can to assist.”
Interestingly, the leading cryptocurrency exchange launched an initiative last year called Bulletproof Exchanger, aiming to help in similar situations. It identifies and tracks hubs of malicious activity involving cryptocurrency assets or companies within the ecosystem. Once it successfully discovers such developments, Binance partners with authorities to take them down.
The Bulletproof Exchanger has successfully assisted with a few investigations. Most recently, Binance collaborated with Ukrainian law enforcement agencies to identify and arrest a group of cybercriminals allegedly responsible for stealing over $42 million through ransomware attacks and extortions.
This article was first published on: Sep 10, 2020