Skip to main content

Hotbit crypto exchange shuts down for maintenance after attempted hack

The Chinese crypto exchange says funds are “SAFU” and that the emergency maintenance could take up to two weeks.

Cryptocurrency exchange platform Hotbit has shut down all of its services after an attempted cyberattack on Thursday.

“Hotbit just suffered a serious cyber-attack starting around 08:00 PM UTC, April 29, 2021, which led to the paralyzation of a number of some basic services,” a notice on the platform’s website reads.

The hackers were reportedly unsuccessful in gaining access to Hotbit’s wallets but did manage to compromise the platform’s user database. Thus, the Hotbit team has advised customers to disregard any communication from entities claiming to be representatives of the exchange.

With all normal operations currently paused during the ongoing maintenance, Hotbit also revealed that pending trading orders are canceled to prevent losses. Also, the exchange promised to bear any losses stemming from exchange-traded funds listed on its platform during the duration of the maintenance.

According to the Hotbit announcement, the maintenance will last for at least seven days with reports that the investigation and system upgrade could take as long as two weeks.

Addressing users on the exchange’s Telegram group, Alex Zhou, chief security officer of Hotbit, revealed that user funds were unaffected by the attack, stating: “The attacker tried to break into the wallet server to steal funds but the action was identified and blocked successfully by Hotbit risk control system. All users’ funds are safe.”

“At the same time, Hotbit is in the process of transferring all funds in hot wallet to cold wallet, the details of the whole integration could be seen on the chain,” he said.

Source: Etherscan

Indeed, data from Ethereum transaction monitoring tool Etherscan shows multiple token outflows from one of Hotbit’s known wallets to another address that currently holds about $14 million in several altcoins.

However, the length of time given for the maintenance is causing significant unrest among Hotbit users judging by comments on social media and in the platform’s Telegram channel.

Fears over the incident being an exit scam by the Hotbit team are palpable. Earlier in April, two major exchanges in Turkey went offline, with their executives fleeing with millions of dollars in user funds. Both incidents have led to sweeping arrests by law enforcement agencies as well as plans by the government to establish a central custodian bank for cryptocurrency exchanges in Turkey.



from https://ift.tt/2QKlWn5
https://ift.tt/3nytVj6
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Any questions, Please.

Popular posts from this blog

How to play and earn in CryptoKitties

CryptoKitties is a blockchain-based game where players can buy, sell and breed digital cats with unique attributes. Reminiscent of Tamagotchi and Pokémon, the wildly popular digital pets and creatures of the 1990s, CryptoKitties is a blockchain-based game where players can collect, trade and breed digital virtual cats. CryptoKitties was the first Ethereum-based game, and its popularity underscored many of the network’s scaling issues. This digital cat-breeding blockchain game caused quite a bit of congestion on the Ethereum blockchain, peaking in 2020. However, the game’s creators were able to address these issues. What is CryptoKitties? Launched in 2017, CryptoKitties was built by Dapper Labs, the company that uses blockchain technology to bring nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and new forms of digital engagement to fans around the world. CryptoKitties is also considered one of the world’s first-ever blockchain games. In the game, each one of the digital collectible cats possesses a
Post a Comment
Read more

Bitcoin dominance falls under 40%

While Bitcoin critics claim this means that BTC is losing its first-mover competitive advantage, others are anticipating the “altcoin season” is just around the corner, or might even be already underway. Bitcoin’s market dominance has continued to fall, bottoming out below 40% this week. That’s very close to the all-time low of 36.7% in Jan 2018 according to data from Tradingview. Bitcoin ( BTC ) market dominance refers to the ratio between BTC’s market cap and the total crypto market cap. It's not the first time dominance has dipped in 2021. Back in May, Cointelegraph reported that BTC had dipped to represent just 40.3% of the combined crypto asset capitalization, according to Coinmarketcap, and it neared the same level again in September.  Bitcoin critic and Europac chairman Peter Schiff tweeted about the event on Dec 29th, saying that it’s indicative that BTC is “losing its first-mover competitive advantage.” With over 16,000 alternative cryptos to choose from Bitcoin
Post a Comment
Read more

Five Bitcoin Price Charts Analyzing The Dramatic Q1 2022 Conclusion

There are only hours remaining until the Q1 2022 close in Bitcoin price action. With the important quarterly candle set to close tonight, let’s look at what technicals might say about the direction of the next quarter. Q1 2022 Comes To A Close For Bitcoin The first quarter of a year, often sets the tone for the year to come. In investments, a poor Q1 performance is indicative of a bad year ahead. Considering the fact that Bitcoin price is now above $45,000 after touching $32,000 this quarter, it is tough to say the performance has been “poor” by anything other than crypto standards. Related Reading | Bitcoin Weekly Momentum Flips Bullish For First Time In 2022 The cryptocurrency has recovered nearly 40% from the low, leaving a long wick behind. Such a long wick suggests that before the quarter came to a close, buyers stepped up in a major way. Buyers were able to step up in a larger capacity in Q1 2022 than bears were able to in the final quarter of last year. The bearish wick to cl
Post a Comment
Read more