CoinEx is a globally working cryptocurrency exchange which established in December 2017. The main team members consist of world-leading finance companies and are professionals with significant experience in the industry.
Having said that, an incident regarding CoinEX took place on 12th September 2023 when the Security noticed a heavy outflow of funds from the crypto exchange to a foregoing unspecified address. Immediate action was taken by the CoinEX security team to investigate and break down the situation.
#CoinExResponseUpdate – We've identified the 3rd series of suspicious wallet addresses linked to the hack:
We are working nonstop to track down the hackers' addresses. Here are the recently identified addresses:$BSC:
*0xC844F7178379782eC19F3EE6E399f2EB7b2b984F$ARB:…— CoinEx Global (@coinexcom) September 13, 2023
Following the incident, the investigation team found uncertified transactions involving many cryptocurrencies, which included $XRP, $ETH and $BTC. However, the losses faced by the industry are still undetermined. CoinEX then proceeded to ensure all its users that their “funds were not compromised, and if any of it were affected, they would compensate them for the loss”. Nevertheless, all services were disabled for additional security purposes.
This was certainly not the first time that CoinEX suffered through this. In 2014, the exchange was hacked, which resulted in the stealing of bitcoins, but the exchange was recovered soon enough.
Earlier this year, CoinEX also put an end to serving their US customers due to daily concerns.
Uncovering the CoinEX Security Breach
Prior to the recent CoinEX hack, the revelation was made on the incident when investigators came across a connection between the recent CoinEX security breach and a $41 million stake hack previously made on Polygon and OP with an identical unknown address.
A whopping $6,060,175 in $XRP, $18,000,000 in $ETH, and $5,987,520 in $BTC was emptied out from the CoinEX platform. As the sum is increasing with time, so far it is confirmed that around $55M has been stolen in the CoinEX security breach.
The value of the stolen cryptocurrencies in the hack attack on the #CoinEx exchange reached $54 million.
$5,987,520 in $BTC
$6,060,175 in $XRP
$18,000,000 in $ETH pic.twitter.com/uwUwDPn9At— CO NEWS (@coinotagen) September 13, 2023
Later, Zach XBT, a professional blockchain enthusiast who uncovers scams and crypto hacks, took it to X (formerly known as Twitter) and said: “It appears that North Korea’s Lazarus Group is also behind the CoinEX hack since they unintentionally connected their address to Polygon and Op stake hack”. An Ethereum address was found that was owned by the same attacker, which further suggested that the attacks were carried out by one group. The address mentioned had transactions with Stake as well, and the funds stolen from CoinEX were transferred to the same address.
🚨According to @zachxbt, the notorious North Korean hacker group Lazarus might be behind the recent hack at #CoinEX.
The hack might also be connected to a recent security breach at the betting platform #Stake👀#ZachXBT pinpointed an #Ethereum wallet address believed to belong… pic.twitter.com/Jij02LKk0r
— Satoshi Talks (@Satoshi_Talks) September 13, 2023
It has also been stated that several of the most recent incidents were connected with North Korea. These primarily included a $35 million hack of cryptocurrency. The Lazarus group is a renowned hacking group which targets the cryptocurrency platform to fund its nuclear weapons.
However, CoinEX has not yet made another statement on the following incident. Apparently, the exchange is working to restore the data and compensate their users. Meanwhile, the attack on Op and Polygon is yet to be figured out. Whereas, CoinEX is trying to make its platform secure.