Bitmart is looking to repay hacked victims as the crypto community speaks out in support

Bitmart is trying to make amends for victims of the hack as the crypto community speaks out in support. As the number of cryptocurrency mining cases rises again, it seems that platforms can do a lot more to build investor confidence.

analysis

As regulatory uncertainty continues to affect the global digital asset ecosystem, many supporters of the fight against cryptocurrencies continue to insist that the entire industry as a whole is still alive. comparable to the traditional financial system. Now that the recent Bitmart hack has become known, these people have become even stronger.

In short, on December 5th, the Bitmart crypto exchange underwent a massive hack that cost the platform almost $ 200 million due to the hack of a hot wallet hosted on the Ethereum blockchain and Binance smart chain. The breach was first discovered by blockchain security firm Peckshield, whose cybersecurity team discovered that nefarious third parties could initially transfer about $ 100 million through the Ethereum blockchain, followed by another $ 96 million in a parallel hack. use BSC reserves of cryptocurrency exchanges.

Hackers managed to hoard over 20 tokens, including several altcoins such as Binance Coin (BNB), SafeMoon (SAFEMOON), BSC-USD, and BNBBPay (BPay). You can also steal a large number of Meme Cards, including Newborn Doge Coin (BabyDoge), Floki Inu (FLOKI), and Moonshot (MOONSHOT). According to PeckShield security, the entire plan could be Attribution in a simple exchange, change and wash process.

Reply from Bitmart

Cointelegraph reached out to Bitmart to better understand how things are going. An exchange spokesman pointed out that shortly after discovering the breach, the company shut down several systems to “limit any kind of immediate damage.” The spokesperson added:

“We plan to continue to gradually restore services, but only as part of a thorough check of our security service. Safety remains our top priority. In fact, as of Tuesday 7 December 2021 EST, we continue to deposit and withdraw funds using ETH and ERC20 tokens. ”

In addition, the exchange’s written response highlighted that in order to strengthen its original security infrastructure, Bitmart has replaced all of its token deposit addresses associated with currencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Solana (SALT). as well as any other tokens involved in the incident. “We have also informed our users of the relevant changes,” the statement said.

Finally, on December 6, Sheldon Xia, founder and CEO of BitMart, announced Through Twitter, xchange will cover the losses caused by the incident at its own expense: “We are also in talks with several project teams to confirm the smartest decisions, such as token swaps. It will not damage the property of any user. ”

The crypto community demonstrates solidarity

Following the nearly $ 200 million hack, members of the global Shiba Inu community (SHIB) and global cryptocurrency exchange Huobi stepped in to provide Bitmart with any form of support the exchange could offer, as well as help Bitmart get hold of the wrong asset. Follow the flow.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Jeff May, Chief Strategy Officer for Huobi Global, noted that in cases like those seen at Bitmart, transparency and quick action should come first, adding:

“Exchanges should notify their users, other exchanges and law enforcement agencies as soon as possible, and be transparent about what they are doing to deal with hacks and loss of funds.”

In addition, May stressed that users should avoid pooling all their assets on one platform or wallet, and if they feel that something incomprehensible is happening, users should feel free to contact the relevant exchange and inform them of a potential security incident. …

Like Huobi, the Shiba Inu community has also confirmed its intention to help Bitmart, adding that it has stepped up efforts to analyze potential security threats to ShibaSwap, a community-created decentralized exchange (DEX).

More education needed

Raimundo Castilla, CEO of digital asset storage platform Prosegur Crypto, told Cointelegraph that what happened to Bitmart as a result of the recent hack can only be easily prevented if platform users are properly trained to store their digital assets. in the public domain, and not keep the exchange itself turned on. Platform:

“Hot wallets should only be reserved for the amount you want to spend. This money was to be secured in a cold store with an air gap system and 100% offline transactions. ”

However, Castilla added that in order to avoid future problems, platforms such as Bitmart must use a combination of innovative technologies and rigid governance protocols. First of all, your private key doesn’t have to be protected online, because anything stored online is vulnerable, no matter how well protected. “You have to whitelist so that even if someone has access to the private key, they can only send funds to the pre-approved wallet direction,” he explained.

In addition, Bitmart has the potential to leverage an improved Multilateral Computing Collaborative Signature (MPC) system that uses a multi-signature approval module. To do this, the hacker will need several people to authorize the transactions in question.

Castilla added: “Just cracking the private key will do nothing.” Moreover, someone in the role of the lead account manager could step in and “stop the transaction to get to the customer to see if it was real.”

The best security measures are in the order of things

With the crypto ecosystem seemingly suffering from a constant onslaught of nefarious hacks, it’s worth noting that Digital Asset Lending Platform C recently confirmed that it lost $ 50 million mining it using the decentralized financial protocol (DeFi), from BadgerDAO.

First attack reports lift up 9 when the core protocol development team announced that they had received “multiple unauthorized withdrawals” involving their clients. They then suspend all of their existing smart contracts to mitigate potential losses.

That said, it wasn’t all that bad when Synapse Bridge announced on November 9 that its security team would be searching for nearly $ 8 million worth of digital currencies on November 9.