Japanese crypto exchange Liquid suffers $91mn asset hack
By Jenni Reid
06:58, 20 August 2021
Top Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Liquid suffered a major security breach on Friday, resulting in the theft of more than USD91mn in assets.
The company announced it detected unauthorised access to some crypto wallets it managed at around 7:50am in Singapore (GMT+8).
The firm said that 69 different crypto assets worth approximately USD91.35mn were moved out of Liquid wallets, of which USD16.13mm were now frozen for onchain movement.
The Liquid website suspended all crypto deposits and withdrawals until further notice, though fiat deposits and withdrawals remained available. The trading platform Liquid Earn was not affected.
Market up
The compromise of one of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges does not seem to have dented the value of any major cryptocurrencies, with the global crypto market up more than 7% in value on Friday, in the wake of the hack.
Bitcoin was up 5.95% in value over the last 24 hours by 14:30SGT, Ethereum was up 7.39%, while Cardano was up 18.79%.
Lloyd Lee, CEO of digital asset manager Hyperithm, said that since late 2018 there had been very little correlation between crypto exchange hacks and bitcoin prices, so the company was unsurprised that the market was today unfazed.
Kurt Grumelart, operations coordinator at digital asset firm Zerocap, told capital.com: “While the amount hacked from Liquid is not trivial, it appears that the broader crypto market participants have become desensitised to this kind of news, predominantly due to a shift in market structure - stronger hands, institutional holders - and seasoned market participants growing used to the flow of negative press surrounding digital assets and an acceptance of exchange risk.
“Simply put, the majority have seen it all before and the risks have become more known and acceptable against a backdrop of a more institutionalised market.”
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The Liquid hack comes after USD600m in crypto assets was stolen from decentralised finance outfit Poly Network (much of which was subsequently returned), through a vulnerability between its contract calls.
“Cryptocurrency exchanges are extremely compelling targets for cybercriminals,” said Chris Clements, vice president of Solutions Architecture at Cerberus Sentinel.
“Successful attacks can net millions of dollars in cryptocurrency value that can be much more easily moved between borders with little recourse available to victims. As the global cryptocurrency craze continues, we will see more and more of these attacks targeting exchanges,” he added.
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