Two weeks after New Zealand cryptocurrency exchange Cryptopia was hacked, it seems that the venue is still compromised.
Ongoing Cryptopia Hack
The cryptocurrency exchange Cryptopia suspended activities after detecting a major breach in its securities on January 15th, which resulted in significant losses.
Blockchain infrastructure company Elementus reported that $16 million worth of Ethereum (ETH), as well as other ERC20-based tokens, were stolen.
Now, after being dormant for two weeks, it seems that the Cryptopia hack has been renewed as the wrongdoer supposedly siphoned another 1,675 ETH, roughly around $180,000, from as much as 17,000 Cryptopia wallets, Elementus reports.
Troublesome Conclusions
According to Elementus, there were 1,948 at-risk wallets which were previously identified, as well as 5,000 wallets which had already been drained out in the previous hack.
This has led the company to make a couple of important, yet troublesome conclusions.
First, it appears that the cryptocurrency exchange has lost control over the Ethereum wallets while the hacker has it. Reportedly, the hacker can withdraw funds from any wallet on the exchange at will.
Second, the fact that so many wallets have been hacked twice signals the lack of consideration of users regarding their crypto holdings. Many people continue to send money to addresses which have been previously hacked, topping them up with more ETH.
Elementus also shares that most of these funds are coming from certain mining pools and it’s possible that payments are being sent on behalf of miners who have previously opted to receive their rewards automatically through a direct deposit.
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