BingX exchange hit by $26 million hack, with attacker changing stolen funds for Ethereum, BNB and POL

BingX exchange allegedly loses $26.68 million in cryptocurrencies to a hack on a hot wallet.
The funds stolen were changed to Ethereum, Binance Coin and Polygon’s POL token.
If the attacker offloads the stolen assets to exchanges, it could increase the selling pressure and negatively affect prices.

Crypto exchange BingX said on Friday that it suffered a hack, an attack that led to “minimal” losses that researchers at PeckShield estimate at $26.68 million. The attacker swapped the stolen altcoins for Ethereum (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB) and Polygon (POL) tokens, according to on-chain data.

Ethereum, BNB and POL worth over $26 million on the move

BingX exchange made an official announcement on X acknowledging the hack on the platform’s hot wallets. A hot wallet is a wallet address used to store cryptocurrency and is connected to the internet, making it vulnerable to hacks.

The official announcement states that at 20:00 GMT on Thursday the team detected what is termed “an abnormal access” to the exchange’s hot wallet. This was suspected as a malicious attack by a hacker and the platform initiated an emergency response procedure. The exchange paused withdrawals and transfers as part of its response.

The exchange extended the pause on withdrawals for 24 hours, per the tweet on X.

Security Update

At 4 AM (SGT) on Sept 20, our team detected abnormal access to the BingX hot wallet, suspecting a hacker attack. We immediately initiated an emergency response, including asset transfers and pausing withdrawals.

Only minor losses so far, and we’ve got… https://t.co/7CFsqF5W20
— BingX (@BingXOfficial) September 20, 2024

PeckShield’s security researchers identified the on-chain trail of transfers made by the hacker, and shared the details of the total value of tokens stolen in the hack.

BingX hack

Stolen funds were converted to ETH, POL and BNB, the data shows, leading to a cause for concern for holders of these coins. If the hacker transfers the stolen crypto to exchange platforms, it could result in a sell-off and likely negatively impact prices of these three tokens.

BingX plans to reimburse users affected by the hack with their own capital

Vivien Lin, Chief Product Officer at BingX, told FXStreet that all the users affected by the hack will be fully covered by the platform’s funds :

The total loss is minimal and manageable. This incident will not affect our business operations. Trading services continue as usual. Withdrawals and deposits are temporarily delayed and are expected to be restored within 24 hours.

At the time of writing, withdrawals are paused and different security intelligence platforms continue to speculate the total value of crypto assets lost.

As for the main tokens related to the hack, all three seem to be shrugging off the news: Ethereum gains more than 3% on Friday, while Binance Coin and Polygon prices increase 0.8% and 2%, respectively.

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