Japanese crypto exchange Liquid says some digital wallets compromised; experts estimate damages at $97 million

Liquid said it is “investigating” the matter and “will provide regular updates. It has for the time being suspended deposits and withdrawals.

Liquid, a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange on August 19  said some of its digital currency wallets had been “compromised” and the hackers had transferred their assets to four different wallets.

The exchange in a Tweet said it is investigating the matter and will provide regular updates. In the meantime, all deposits and withdrawals will be suspended.

"We are sorry to announce that Liquid Global warm wallets were compromised, we are moving assets into the cold wallet. We are currently investigating and will provide regular updates. In the meantime, deposits and withdrawals will be suspended."

The following assets had been transferred to hacker's following addresses (Further investigation to come):
BTC: 1Fx1bhbCwp5LU2gHxfRNiSHi1QSHwZLf7q
ETH/EWT: 0x5578840aae68682a9779623fa9e8714802b59946
TRX: TSpcue3bDfZNTP1CutrRrDxRPeEvWhuXbp
XRP: rfapBqj7rUkGju7oHTwBwhEyXgwkEM4yby

— Liquid Global Official (@Liquid_Global) August 19, 2021

Liquid, regulated by Financial Services Agency in Japan, did not provide any details on the extent of the damage. However, blockchain analytics company Elliptic valued the worth of cryptocurrencies stolen at around $97 million.

In a blog post, Elliptic said its analysis showed “just over $97 million in crypto assets have been received by the accounts identified by Liquid as belonging to the thief.”

It added that the stolen assets include $45 million in Ethereum tokens, “which are currently being converted into Ether using decentralised exchanges (DEXs) such as Uniswap and SushiSwap” and pointed out that the conversion allows the hacker to evade freezing of the tokens.

Elliptic further added that its investigators are aiding Liquid with tracking the stolen funds.

As per data on CoinMarketCap, Liquid is among the top 20 cryptocurrencies exchanges in the world in terms of trading numbers, processing volumes of over $133 million transactions in 24 hours.

This is the second such incident after hackers took $613 million worth of digital tokens from decentralised finance company Poly Network.

The hackers then returned more than half of the amount they stole, approximately $342 million after Poly Network published an appeal on Twitter urging them to establish communication and "work out a solution" amicably. They have since gone on record to say that they did this for fun and wanted to point out the vulnerability before it became a major risk.

The drama was resolved Poly Network offered the hacker(s) a $500,000 "bug bounty" and in a statement thanked the "white hat" or ethical hacker for "helping us improve Poly Network’s security".

The network also said it hoped "Mr White Hat" would contribute to the blockchain sector’s continued development upon accepting the $500,000 reward, which it had offered as part of negotiations around the return of the digital coins.

The statement did not specify the form in which it would pay the $500,000. It said the hacker had responded to the offer but did not say if it was accepted.