Hackers Steal USD 160 Million Crypto From The Wintermute Platform. Hackers have stolen around USD 160 million worth of digital assets from crypto trading firm Wintermute, the company’s CEO tweeted on Tuesday, September 22, 2022.
The theft targeted London-based Wintermute’s decentralized finance (DeFi) operation, Evgeny Gaevoy said in a tweet. Company, it provides liquidity across major crypto exchanges and trading platforms.
Decentralized financial platforms and software, which aim to provide crypto-based financial services without traditional gatekeepers such as banks, have been the target of many thefts in recent years. The sector is little regulated and crime victims rarely have recourse.
Regarding this hack, Wintermute CEO, Gaevoy did not provide further comment. Wintermute calls itself one of the biggest players in the global crypto market. It said they managed “hundreds of millions” of assets and traded more than $5 billion a day.
Gaevoy said on Twitter there would be a disruption in the service in the next few days and added that about 90 assets were hacked. In a tweet, Gaevoy also said that for users who want to withdraw funds, the company can still do that.
Previously, the popularity of cryptocurrencies with American investors was on the decline. According to a September Bankrate survey, by 2022, only about 21 percent of Americans are comfortable investing in cryptocurrencies. That’s down from 35 percent in 2021. This decline comes amid the so-called crypto winter.
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While comfort levels fell with investors across generations, the decline was steepest among millennials. Nearly 30 percent of U.S. investors between the ages of 26 and 41 are comfortable in 2022, compared to nearly 50 percent in 2021.
This drop is not surprising, considering that nearly $2 trillion has been lost from all crypto markets since November 2021. Prices of popular digital currencies like bitcoin have struggled to reach 2021 highs.
Hackers Steal USD 160 Million Crypto From The Wintermute Platform. One of Bankrate’s representatives, James Royal said any asset trader is a fan of profits. With major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum down more than 70 percent from their all-time high, it’s no surprise that demand is dropping.
“Crypto’s price drop doesn’t help the cause of attracting more people to crypto,” Royal said, quoted by CNBC, Friday, September 30, 2022.
Bitcoin has traded between USD 18,000 and USD 25,000 since June down from a record high of over USD 65,000 in November 2021. The cryptocurrency is considered a highly volatile asset that is subject to unpredictable price fluctuations.
Financial experts usually advise against investing more money into cryptocurrencies because there is no guarantee of profit.
Previously, hackers became increasingly creative when engineering attacks, such as creating fake digital wallets to take cryptoinvestors.
Reporting from Bitcoin.com, Tuesday (30/8/2022), Confiant, a company dedicated to checking the quality of advertising and security threats, has warned about a new type of attack affecting users of popular Web3 wallets such as Metamask and Coinbase Wallet.
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The cluster, identified as “Seaflower,” is qualified by Confiant as one of the most advanced attacks of its kind. The report states general users cannot detect these apps, as they are nearly identical to the original apps, but have a different codebase that allows hackers to steal wallet initial phrases, giving them access to investors’ funds.
The report found these apps were distributed mostly outside of regular app stores, via links found by users on search engines like Baidu.
Investigators say the cluster originated in China because of the language in which code comments are written, and other elements such as the location of the infrastructure and services used.
These app links reach popular places on search sites due to their smart SEO optimization handling, allowing them to rank highly and fooling users into believing they are accessing the real site.
The sophistication in these applications boils down to the way the code is hidden, obscuring much of how the system works.
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Hackers Steal USD 160 Million Crypto From The Wintermute Platform. The backdoor application sends a phrase to a remote location at the same time it is being built, and it is a major attack vector for Metamask scammers. For other wallets, Seaflower also uses a very similar attack vector.
The experts then make a series of recommendations to keep the wallet safe on the device. This backdoor app is only distributed outside the app store, so Confiant advises users to always try to install this app from the official store on Android and iOS.
