Crypto Exchange CoinEx Shuts Down Withdrawals Following Suspected Hack of $27M

Crypto exchange CoinEx has suspended withdrawals from its platform after a suspected hacker drained millions of dollars’ worth of tokens from the site.

After several cybersecurity firms raised the alarm yesterday on X, formerly known as Twitter, Coinex said it had “detected anomalous withdrawals from several hot wallet addresses used to store CoinEx's exchange assets.”

Initial alerts indicated that the losses could amount to $27 million in Ethereum (ETH), Tron (TRON), and Polygon (MATIC).

CoinEx said on Tuesday night that the precise amount of the loss was still being determined, but added that it was “just a very small portion of CoinEx’s total asset[s].”

While the platform’s team investigates the incident, both withdrawals and deposits have been disabled on the platform.

“We assure all users: your assets are secure and untouched,” the company said on X. “Affected parties will receive 100% compensation for any loss due to this breach.”

Since acknowledging the breach, CoinEx has shared several lists of suspect wallet addresses linked to the hack. Affected tokens include the three initially flagged, as well as Bitcoin (BTC), Arbitrum (ARB), Solana (SOL), and half a dozen other cryptocurrencies.

What is CoinEx?

Founded in 2017, crypto exchange CoinEx made its name with a focus on Bitcoin Cash (BCH) after the first hard fork of the world’s largest cryptocurrency. In 2020, a major expansion saw it offer futures trading, leveraged trading, options trading, and access to over 100 token projects.

Last month the company boasted in a blog post that it “has never suffered any security breach thanks to its world-class security infrastructure”.