AscendEX loses $80M following ERC-20, BSC, Polygon hot wallet compromise

AscendEX promptly alerted its users of the thefts, and confirmed that hackers could not access company cold wallet reserves.

AscendEX, a crypto trading platform, suffered a loss $77.7 million in a hot wallet compromise. This enabled hackers to gain access to and transfer tokens over the Ethereum (ETH), Binance Smart Chains (BSC), and Polygon (POLY).

22:00 UTC 12/11: We found a couple of ERC-20, BSC and Polygon tokens being transferred from our hot bank. AscendEX will cover all funds impacted by the occurrence.
— AscendEX (@AscendEX_Global) December 12, 2021

Some popular tokens that were stolen include USD Coin (USDC), USDT (USDT) and Shiba Inu( SHIB). AscendEX has yet to confirm the exact worth of the tokens taken by hackers.

PeckShield is a blockchain security company and data analytics company. It claims that around $60 million worth tokens were transferred via the Ethereum blockchain. According to EtherScan information, the Binance Smart Chain tokens and Polygon tokens are worth $9.2 and $8.5 million, respectively.

Loss @AscendEX_Global approximated: $77.7 M ($ 60M on @ethereum @BinanceChain $18.5 M @ 0xPolygon Here is the list of the transferred-out assets and their quantities on @ethereum pic.twitter.com/VC4DKOwu4f
— PeckShield Inc., (@peckshield), December 12, 2021

The company also mentioned that it would assist impacted users to cover their losses from the attack.

Related: Bitmart hacks for $200M after Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain exploit

Cointelegraph reported that the hack included a simple transfer-out, swap and wash.

A hot wallet compromise that was hosted on the Ethereum and Binance Smartchain blockchains resulted in a loss of almost $200 million in crypto exchange BitMart last week, Dec. 05.

Bitmart: Transfer of taken tokens Source: PeckShield

All tokens withdrawal and deposit functions will be resumed, action by action. This will likewise include development in security testing and public-chain advancement recovery. We are moving forward and security will always be our very first concern.
— Sheldon Xia (@sheldonbitmart) December 8, 2021
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BitMart CEO Sheldon Xia verified that BitMart had suffered losses through Twitter. He revealed a short-term stop to all withdrawals and deposits till further examination was completed.

22:00 UTC 12/11: We discovered a few ERC-20, BSC and Polygon tokens being moved from our hot bank. AscendEX will cover all funds impacted by the incident.
It declares that around $60 million worth tokens were transferred by means of the Ethereum blockchain. According to EtherScan information, the Binance Smart Chain tokens and Polygon tokens are worth $9.2 and $8.5 million, respectively.

All tokens withdrawal and deposit functions will be resumed, action by action.