Another cryptocurrency exchange gets hit by criminals who have made away with over $23 million in cryptocurrency. Israel-based cryptocurrency exchange Bancor confirmed that it has been a target of a security incident where criminals managed to get access to one of the company’s wallets to steal 24,984 ETH, among other coins.
“This morning (CEST) Bancor experienced a security breach,” the exchange said in a tweet. “No user wallets were compromised. To complete the investigation, we have moved to maintenance and will be releasing a more detailed report shortly. We look forward to being back online as soon as possible.”
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Bancor hacked; $12m in Ether stolen
Bancor advertises itself as a “decentralized exchange” service, managing to raise over $150 million in an ICO last year. One of its services includes a wallet with a built-in exchange service. In the latest security incident, Bancor said that “a wallet used to upgrade some smart contracts was compromised” with attackers making off with:
- Over $12.5 million in Ether (24,984 ETH)
- $1 million in NPXS token (229,356,645 NPXS)
- $10 million in Bancor’s BNT (3,200,000 BNT)
While the company has frozen BNT, it can’t do the same with other currencies. However, it added that Bancor is working with other exchanges to make it more difficult for attackers to “liquidate” the stolen tokens.
“It is not possible to freeze the ETH and any other stolen tokens. However, we are working together with dozens of cryptocurrency exchanges to trace the stolen funds and make it more difficult for their thief to liquidate them.”
Decentralized cryptocurrency exchange manages to deal with the security breach like a centralized firm – draws irony and, of course, tons of tweets
Twitter was quick to hit Bancor that has responded to the incident by freezing BNT – something that a centralized exchange would allow. Litecoin’s Charlie Lee tweeted that the firm is giving a “false sense of decentralization.”
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A Bancor wallet got hacked and that wallet has the ability to steal coins out of their own smart contracts. ?♂️
An exchange is not decentralized if it can lose customer funds OR if it can freeze customer funds. Bancor can do BOTH. It’s a false sense of decentralization. https://t.co/22UYygIhEF
— Charlie Lee [LTC⚡] (@SatoshiLite) July 10, 2018
While Bancor is yet to respond to this in detail, the company tweeted that it supports “the healthy debate on the balance between security and decentralization that has ensued” as a result of this attack. The exchange is expected to go back online in the next few hours.
Bancor token (BNT) has reportedly taken a 14% dip as a result of this attack.
