Bitopro exchange hit by $11.5M outflows in potential exploit
Taiwan-based cryptocurrency exchange BitoPro was appears to have suffered a security incident after more than $11.5 million in crypto was drained from its hot wallets on May 8.
The suspicious transactions, which occurred across hot wallets on Ethereum, Tron, Solana and Polygon saw asset outflows to decentralized exchanges (DEXs) where they were later marked as sold, according to onchain investigator ZachXBT.
The exchange has still “not disclosed the security incident on X or Telegram several weeks later,” ZachXBT said in an X post.
The exchange has not confirmed the incident.
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Blockchain data shows assets were deposited into cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash or bridged to Bitcoin via THORChain, patterns often employed by hackers to make funds anonymous and untraceable.
On May 9, BitoPro announced a maintenance period for the exchange, which was resolved on the same day. However, many users have since reported being unable to withdraw USDt (USDT).
Cointelegraph reached out to BitoPro for comment but had not received a response by the time of publication.
Hackers continue vying for the growing value locked into exchanges and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.
On May 22, decentralized exchange Cetus was exploited for over $220 million, but validators managed to freeze $162 million, which was subsequently returned to the protocol after a governance vote on May 30.
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This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.
