DragonEx is the 2nd crypto exchange hacked in Q1 2019. Who did it? How much assets were stolen? Find out the answers to the questions about DragonEx hack.
UPDATED: Total amount stolen added under ‘Over $7M Were Stolen’ section
After Cryptopia’s announcement last week of its recovery from the large-scale hack in January this year, which resulted in millions of dollars-worth in digital tokens, a new case of cyber attack shocked the cryptocurrency community. This time, the victim is Singapore-based crypto exchange DragonEx.
Here’s a rundown of what we know so far about the DragonEx hack:
DragonEx hacked on Sunday, 24 March
News of the cyber attacks first appeared on the official Telegram channel of DragonEx on Monday, 25 March, one day after the hack was reportedly experienced.
In the announcement, the admin said both the users’ and the platform’s crypto assets were “transferred and stolen”. This has raised concerns among crypto users in regard to the security and reliability of the platforms used by the cryptocurrency exchanges operating today.
“On March 24th, DragonEx has encounterred attacks from hackers, our users’ crypto assets and Platform crypto assets were transferred and stolen.”
Meanwhile, speculations of an exit scam is weak as the company is active in updating the community of the status of investigations.
“For the loss caused to our users, DragonEx will take the responsibility no matter what.”
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Over $7M Were Stolen
Initial reports predicted the amount stolen to be at least $800,000 based on the analyzed Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC) wallet addresses from the exchange, with the 1,522 ETH and 135 BTC, respectively.
DragonEx announced on 30 March that it had lost 7.09 million USDT assets in hack. Included in the sum are the following:
- 135 BTC
- 2,738.12 ETH
- 247,000 XRP
- 1,464,319.32 USDT
- 64, 121.00 XEM
- 426,314.70 EOS
- 3,194.35 ETC, and more.
The exchange said retrieving the stolen assets would be difficult, and therefore announced a compensation plan instead, saying:
“DragonEx will issue 7million USDT value of DB, Dragon Bond which is 1:1 with USDT. The stolen assets of users will be calculated at the price when it was hacked, DragonEx will compensate 10% of the stolen assets as original currencies and the other 90% will be compensated with DB.”
DragonEx also revealed that it is looking at external financing to buy all stolen assets.
20 Different Wallets Illegally Accessed
Hackers successfully compromised 20 crypto wallets, including BTC and ETH. Other wallets involved in the hack are Ripple (XRP), EOS (EOS), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Litecoin, (LTC), Tron (TRX), and Tether (USDT), among others.
Meanwhile, Chinese cyber security firm SlowMist reported that hackers may have stolen more than 20 types of cryptos.
“Transferred” to Several Crypto Exchanges
DragonEx published on 26 March the list of wallet address detected to have received the stolen assets. Some of the wallet addresses are from other crypto exchanges like Huobi and Gate.io. Other reports include Bittrex and Binance to the list of crypto exchanges where the stolen assets may have been transferred to.
The admin said:
“We earnestly request help from all our fellow exchanges and other industry strength, please help us to investigate and traced the assets, freeze them and stop the assets flows.”
Some of the stolen assets transferred to Huobi and Gate.io have already been blockced, according to DragonEx.
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Investors Told Not to Give Sensitive Information
As an investigation is underway, DragonEx reminded its users to not give anyone, including official DragonEx customer services support, the following details:
- Passwords
- SMS code
- Private key for transfer
- GA code
- Email verification code
The post warned investors and traders that the DragonEx support will never ask for the said sensitive information, especially during the investigation process. The company also warned its users to be alert of suspicious communication and activities pertaining to the recovery of their assets. Details of the official assistance have been provided by the exchange.
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