During the attack on the Crypto.com infrastructure, the accounts of about 400 users were hacked. The cryptocurrency platform covered the losses of clients, so their funds were not affected, said the company’s CEO Chris Marszalek.
On wider crypto adoption and the number of global crypto users rising to 1 billion in 2022, “I think one of the key things to look at here is the expansion of use cases.” CEO @cryptocom‘s Kris Marszalek tells @BloombergTV‘s @emilychangtv #TheYearAhead pic.twitter.com/ewK9MvEdHD
— Bloomberg Live (@BloombergLive) January 19, 2022
“We stopped it very quickly, froze the withdrawals, fixed it and went back online in about 13-14 hours. On the same day, all accounts that were affected received a refund. Therefore, there was no loss of customer funds,” Marszalek said.
On January 17, following customer reports of suspicious activity on their accounts, Crypto.com suspended withdrawals. The company assured that user assets are safe, however, PeckShield analysts estimated the damage from the actions of hackers at more than $15 million.
An OXT Research specialist under the pseudonym ErgoBTC noted that the value of the stolen assets was significantly higher. He noticed that the hackers withdrew from the platform not only 4836 ETH, but also 444 BTC (~$18.63 million at the exchange rate at the time of writing). Thus, the total damage could be more than $33 million.
Adding another 444 BTC to the previously reported 4.6k ETH from yesterday’s @cryptocom hack.
Still no acknowledgment of loss, despite large outflows from the custodial wallet into ETH’s Tornado Cash and a well known BTC tumbler (as detailed below). pic.twitter.com/GalJKM6bi9
— ∴Ergo∴ (@ErgoBTC) January 18, 2022
ErgoBTC also highlighted that the attackers sent all of the BTC to a bitcoin mixer address that was used in the past by the Lazarus Group and Darkside hackers.
In a conversation with Bloomberg, Marszalek did not give the exact amount of the stolen funds, but stressed that on the scale of the Crypto.com business, the losses are “not particularly significant.” The company is still investigating the incident and will release a report in the next few days, he said.
Recall that in September 2021, Crypto.com expanded the scope of the user funds insurance program to $750 million. The coverage guarantees compensation for direct and indirect losses of assets in cold storage Ledger Vault, the company’s custodial partner.
