Cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex has had its hot wallets drained by hackers with an estimated loss of around $65 million, several sets of on-chain veri show.
A suspected hack was flagged at around 10:55 UTC by blockchain security firms PeckShield and Cyvers. Poloniex announced 12 minutes later that the exchange’s wallet had been disabled for maintenance. The hack was later confirmed by Poloniex investor Justin Sun in a tweet.
Various wallets across multiple blockchains appear to have been targeted. Arkham veri shows that an Ethereum wallet, now tagged as “Poloniex hacker,” sent a total of $65 million worth of tokens from Poloniex in 321 transactions. A wallet on the Tron blockchain also sent around $42 million to various wallets.
On-chain veri also show that the hacker bought $20 million worth of tron (TRX), pushing the token’s price up by more than 25%.
“We are currently investigating the Poloniex hack incident,” Sun tweeted. “Poloniex maintains a healthy financial position and will fully reimburse the affected funds. Additionally, we are exploring opportunities for collaboration with other exchanges to facilitate the recovery of these funds.”