CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 82.67% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money

Crypto exchange AscendEX confirms weekend hack

By Joyanta Acharjee

15:08, 13 December 2021

A stack of cryptocurrency coins
Even digital coins are not safe from thieves – Photo: Shutterstock

Cryptocurrency exchange AscendEX has reportedly lost up to $77.7m (£58.6m) in a hack which took place over the weekend.

“On 11 December at approximately 22:00 UTC, AscendEX identified a number of unauthorised transfers from one of our hot wallets,” AscendEX said in a series of Tweets.

“A security response was initiated immediately. Cold wallets are unaffected, and any impacted users will be reimbursed 100%.”

A Tweet from AscendEX confirms the hackA Tweet from AscendEX confirms the hack – Photo: Twitter

Remediation Tweets

The exchange also outlined remediation steps it was taking in the Twitter posts.

“We are working alongside chain analytics firms and law enforcement to monitor the transferred assets. We are also in close contact with other CEXs to blacklist wallets associated with the incident.”

Security research firm PeckShield estimated AscendEX’s losses at $77.7m across three blockchains: $60m on Ethereum (ETH), $9.2m on Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and $8.5m on Polygon (MATIC).

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DOGE/USD

0.37 Price
-5.160% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 22:00 (UTC)
Spread 0.0012872

XRP/USD

0.79 Price
+14.470% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 22:00 (UTC)
Spread 0.01168

ETH/USD

3,064.85 Price
-3.060% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 22:00 (UTC)
Spread 6.00

BTC/USD

87,116.45 Price
-1.880% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 22:00 (UTC)
Spread 106.00
Research firm PeckShield tweets the amount of lossesResearch firm PeckShield tweets the amount of losses – Photo: Twitter

No official word

There were no statements on the official AscendEX website or company blogs about the hack.

 

AscendEX did not immediately respond to a request from Capital.Com for comment.

According to data from Coinmarketcap.com, AscendEX – formerly known as BitMax – is ranked 35 out of its 304 listed crypto exchanges with volume of $101.6m in the past 24 hours.

Last week, crypto exchange BitMart suffered a hack with losses estimated between $150m to $200m.

Read more: Crypto platform BitMart loses 0m in weekend hack

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The difference between trading assets and CFDs
The main difference between CFD trading and trading assets, such as commodities and stocks, is that you don’t own the underlying asset when you trade on a CFD.
You can still benefit if the market moves in your favour, or make a loss if it moves against you. However, with traditional trading you enter a contract to exchange the legal ownership of the individual shares or the commodities for money, and you own this until you sell it again.
CFDs are leveraged products, which means that you only need to deposit a percentage of the full value of the CFD trade in order to open a position. But with traditional trading, you buy the assets for the full amount. In the UK, there is no stamp duty on CFD trading, but there is when you buy stocks, for example.
CFDs attract overnight costs to hold the trades (unless you use 1-1 leverage), which makes them more suited to short-term trading opportunities. Stocks and commodities are more normally bought and held for longer. You might also pay a broker commission or fees when buying and selling assets direct and you’d need somewhere to store them safely.
Capital Com is an execution-only service provider. The material provided in this article is for information purposes only and should not be understood as investment advice. Any opinion that may be provided on this page does not constitute a recommendation by Capital Com or its agents and has not been prepared in accordance with the legal requirements designed to promote investment research independence. While the information in this communication, or on which this communication is based, has been obtained from sources that Capital.com believes to be reliable and accurate, it has not undergone independent verification. No representation or warranty, whether expressed or implied, is made as to the accuracy or completeness of any information obtained from third parties. If you rely on the information on this page, then you do so entirely at your own risk.

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