Crypto exchange Bitmart has recently experienced a significant security breach, reportedly losing around $100 million and halting all withdrawals.
The Exchange’s CEO, Sheldon Xia, took to Twitter to clarify that the breach was due to a stolen private key that compromised two of its hot wallets. He stated, “In response to this incident, BitMart has completed initial security checks and identified affected assets. This security breach was mainly caused by a stolen private key that had two of our hot wallets compromised. Other assets with BitMart are safe and unharmed.”
Xia also indicated that BitMart would utilize its own funds to address the incident and compensate affected users. He added, “We are also talking to multiple project teams to confirm the most reasonable solutions such as token swaps. No user assets will be harmed.”
BitMart, which promotes itself as “The Most Trusted Crypto Trading Platform” on Twitter, is expected to resume trading on Tuesday.
Security analysts from PeckShield suggest that the actual losses could exceed the reported figure, estimating around $100 million on the Ethereum blockchain and an additional $96 million from the Binance Smart Chain.
Additionally, recent data from Elliptic reveals that over $12 billion in losses have been recorded over the past year by DeFi users and investors. Notably, in August, $613 million in user funds were drained from PolyNetwork in what remains the largest DeFi attack to date, although the attacker eventually returned the funds.