You might have invested in cryptocurrency and have used online exchanges a lot of times in the past. However, if you are using Kucoin as the cryptocurrency exchange for dealing with cryptocurrency investment, then this might be bad news for you. Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin disclosed today that their exchange has been hacked. They also confirmed that the threat actor breached its systems and emptied its hot wallets of all funds. Hot wallets are actually crypto management application that is connected to the network and is used for temporary storage system assets that are currently being exchanged on the platform, and they are used to power conversion operations and funds transfers.
After some very large withdrawals were made on their platform, Kucoin started checking their hot wallets on September 26. Once the security audit was conducted, the missing funds were discovered and confirmed that the hacker was able to steal Bitcoin assets, ERC-20-based tokens, along with other types of tokens. The estimated loss to Kucoin can be estimated at around $150 million, which is based on Etherium address that was used to steal the fund.
The Kucoin CEO Johnnny Lyu is scheduled for a live stream at 12:30 (UTC+8), September 26, 2020, which will provide the customers all the necessary information about the security breach. The company has also confirmed that any customer has lost funds in the hot wallet, the company will be reimbursing them from their cold wallets which are the permanent storage of crypto coins on the server. Till the time investigation is going on, the platform has been closed for dealing.