Summary # On June 2, 2019, Kraken, a respected cryptocurrency exchange, experienced a flash crash on its Bitcoin-to-Canadian Dollar (BTC/CAD) trading pair. In a matter of seconds, the price of BTC dropped from $11,200 CAD to just over $101 CAD, a decline of over 99%. The incident resulted in losses of approximately $10,470,000 USD, equivalent to 1,200 BTC. Analysts suggest that this event was executed by a hacker attempting to siphon funds from Kraken.
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Summary # Bitcoin Cash (BCH) faced a 51% attack on May 15, 2019, in which a group of miners controlled the majority of the network’s hash power. Rather than an attempt at theft or network disruption, this was a unique situation where the miners intervened to prevent a malicious entity from exploiting a network upgrade to insert invalid transactions. The mining pools, BTC.com and BTC.top, spearheaded the move to protect the network’s integrity.
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Summary # In May 2019, Binance, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, experienced a significant security breach resulting in the loss of millions of dollars. The attack was executed by unknown hackers who managed to bypass Binance’s security measures and gain access to user API keys, 2FA codes, and other sensitive information. With this access, the attackers were able to withdraw approximately 7,000 BTC from the exchange’s hot wallet.
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Summary # CoinBene, a Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange, reportedly suffered a security breach on March 25, 2019, resulting in the loss of over $105 million worth of various tokens and coins. The exchange denied being hacked and claimed it was undergoing maintenance. CoinBene has not provided any official statement regarding the incident.
Attackers # The identity of the attacker remains unknown. The following addresses were involved in the hack:
0xA1BF1ED1e8DE34477fB3dCE27c2eA2EA4163AcbA 0xb3dF999C5dC026dea265AEB02b8519844C9b6D5E 0xba351e7f0c630b3baa30a0ff38f6f4a333ef2133 Losses # CoinBene lost $105,150,329 worth of various assets.
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Summary # On March 24, 2019, DragonEx, a Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange, was hacked for $7 million. The attacker gained access to one of the exchange’s hot wallets, which are used to store user funds that are available for withdrawal.
Attackers # Attackers associated with Lazarus Group gained access through a sophisticated phishing attack. More about Lazarus
ETH
DragonEx Hacker wallet: 0xa7f72Bf63EDeCa25636F0B13Ec5135296ca2eBb2 Losses # The attackers managed to steal a total of $7 million:
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Summary # South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Coinbin, which took over the previously hacked exchange Youbit, filed for bankruptcy on February 20, 2019, following embezzlement by an employee. The employee, previously the CEO of Youbit and responsible for cryptocurrency balances at Coinbin, was accused of neglecting his duties and embezzling funds. Specifically, he allegedly appropriated the key to an Ethereum wallet and claimed the cryptographic key had been lost. In addition to these events, Youbit was previously hacked twice: in April and December 2017, losing around 4,000 Bitcoin and $35 million, respectively.
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Summary # Ethereum Classic, a well-known cryptocurrency, experienced a 51% attack in January 2019. The attackers managed to double-spend ETC coins and caused significant losses for users and exchanges.
Attackers # The identity of the attackers behind the Ethereum Classic 51% attack remains unknown. It is suspected that the attackers rented the required hash power from mining marketplaces, such as NiceHash, instead of owning and operating the necessary mining hardware themselves.
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Summary # Pure Bit, a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange, orchestrated an exit scam, swindling roughly 13,678 ETH ($2.8 million) from its private investors by promoting the potential for profits through its exchange token, Pure Coin. The platform promised token holders a share of the exchange’s trading revenue and discounted trading fees, enticing investors with the prospect of significant returns. Additionally, the team behind Pure Bit claimed that 90% of the token supply would be burned over three years, suggesting an induced scarcity that could potentially increase the token’s value.
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Summary # In November 2018, AurumCoin (AU), a relatively lesser-known cryptocurrency, was hit by a 51% attack. During the attack, an anonymous entity was able to gain control of a majority of the network’s hash rate, which enabled them to alter the blockchain ledger and perform double-spend transactions. The attack resulted in the loss of 15,752.26 AurumCoins from the Cryptopia exchange, which was valued at approximately $500,000 at the time.
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Summary # Vertcoin, a cryptocurrency that focuses on decentralization, was hit by a 51% attack in October 2018. The attack led to double-spending and the loss of thousands of dollars in assets. The attackers took advantage of the Lyra2REv2 algorithm, which was susceptible to NiceHash-driven attacks due to the availability of hash power for rent. In response to the attack, Vertcoin switched to a new algorithm called Verthash, which aimed to provide better security against similar attacks in the future.
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