Major crypto wallet and platform Crypto.com has temporarily halted withdrawals after “a small number of users reporting suspicious activity on their accounts,” but all funds are reportedly safe at the moment.
We have a small number of users reporting suspicious activity on their accounts.
— Crypto.com (@cryptocom) January 17, 2022
We will be pausing withdrawals shortly, as our team is investigating. All funds are safe.
A few hours ago, Crypto.com halted withdrawals from its platform in response to several “thefts” reported by customers. Dogecoin (DOGE) founder Billy Markus noticed a suspicious transaction pattern on Etherscan that prompted the company to halt all transactions until it figures out what’s going on with its platform.
Internal system transfers and funds are safe? Inside job gone awry like office space? Hackers taking funds from an exchange hot wallet? ♂️
— Shibetoshi Nakamoto (@BillyM2k) January 17, 2022
Never a dull day in the world of crypto.
Ben Baller, a cryptocurrency enthusiast and jeweler, claimed that his account had been breached, losing 4.28 Ether (ETH) (about $15,000). He also said that he used two-factor authentication, so the alleged perpetrators must have bypassed some of Crypto.com’s security features.
I messaged yah guys hours ago about my account having 4.28ETH stolen out of nowhere and I’m also wondering how they got passed the 2FA?
— BEN BALLER™ (@BENBALLER) January 17, 2022
Related: Crypto.com announces global partnership with Formula 1
Cointelegraph reached out to Crypto.com for more details regarding its decision to halt withdrawals but did not receive a response as of publishing time. This article will be updated pending new information.
According to Perkshield, the perpetrators are likely to be in possession of roughly $15 million worth of stolen funds, with at least 4.6K ETH. The blockchain security and data analytics firm noted that half of the stolen money is currently being laundered via Tornado Cash.
The @cryptocom loss is about $15M with at least 4.6K ETHs and half of them are currently being washed via @TornadoCash https://t.co/PUl6IrB3cp https://t.co/6SVKvk8PLf pic.twitter.com/XN9nmT857j
— PeckShield Inc. (@peckshield) January 18, 2022
The cryptocurrency industry is no stranger to hacks, rug-pulls and protocol exploits. Earlier this month, decentralized finance security platform and bug bounty service Immunefi found that losses from hacks, scams and other malicious activities exceeded $10.2 billion dollars in 2021.
Per the report, there were 120 crypto exploits or fraudulent rug-pulls, the highest-valued hack being the Poly Network at $613 million.