Deribit, one of the leading cryptocurrency options exchanges, stopped accepting withdrawals after a hot wallet attack in which hackers made off with $28 million in digital assets.
The exchange confirmed the incident in a tweet today, saying that its Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDC hot wallets were isolated from the attack. Also, client assets and cold storage addresses were unaffected by the breach. In order to lessen the effects of a security breach or hack, the exchange acknowledged that it is standard operating policy to retain 99% of user funds in cold storage.
Will Deribit continue making withdrawals?
Deribit stated that even though the platform has an insurance fund, all customer monies are secure and that any damages sustained as a result of the hack are covered by corporate reserves. Users were told by the exchange that the required steps are being made to offer reimbursements to the parties who are affected.
Deribit has stopped making withdrawals to third-party custodians while it conducts security checks and investigates the occurrence. The exchange will make an announcement when the security check is over, and withdrawals to custodians like Copper Clearloop and Cobo can once again be made.
The trading platform hasn’t specified a specific period for when it would resume processing withdrawals and deposits. It did state that it would open again once it was “assured” everything was secure.
Deposits already sent to the exchange users’ accounts would still be processed, per the tweet. Once the required number of confirmations is reached, the already-sent deposits will be processed. Noteworthy, they raised the minimum number of confirmations for a transaction amid the attack for security reasons.
At the time of writing, some of Deribit’s website sections also appear to be nonoperating. Deribit Insights, the firm’s crypto data hub, is not available at the time of writing, showing a “critical error on this website.” In the meantime, Deribit’s trading website is intact. A representative of the exchange, however, cleared that the website issue and the hack are not related.
Crypto cyber attacks surge by 192%
Cyber attacks related to crypto-assets have risen significantly since the start of the year, despite the bear market. Deribit has joined a lengthy list of cryptocurrency companies that have been hacked, the most recent incident. The month of October reported the worst incidents of theft, with an approximation of $178 million stolen in only the first two weeks.
So far, in 2022, more than $3 billion in cryptocurrency has been stolen, especially from decentralized finance protocols and cross-chain bridges, according to a recent report by Chainalysis.
