According to reports, Poloniex, a crypto exchange founded by Tron’s Justin Sun, has been hacked for over $100 million. The hack was brought to light by crypto security firms PeckShield and Cyvers. The security firms flagged the possible hack at around 10:55 UTC.
The firm’s customer service arm took to X (formerly known as Twitter) and said that their ‘wallet has been disabled for maintenance.’ The platform said it would inform the community when the wallet is online. However, there has been no update from the exchange since.
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Tron founder and Poloniex backer Justin Sun also took to X and shared the development. Sun said they would offer a 5% white hat bounty to the Poloniex hacker if the funds are returned. Sun has offered the hacker a total of seven days to return the funds before engaging law enforcement.
How was the Tron founder’s exchange hacked?
The hacker has reportedly targeted multiple wallets across various blockchains. According to Arkham, an Ethereum (ETH) wallet now labeled “Poloniex hacker,” sent $114 million worth of tokens from the exchange over 357 transactions. Another wallet on the Tron (TRX) blockchain sent $42 million worth of assets to various wallets.
According to on-chain data, the hacker purchased $20 million worth of TRX, which pushed the token’s price by over 25%.
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However, we are not yet sure how a vulnerability was found and exploited. We may see more updates on how the hacker was able to get their hands on the hot wallet in due time. Nonetheless, exchanges being hacked are a common sight in the crypto space. Earlier this year, HTX was hacked for $8 million worth of ETH. In April, the South Korean exchange Gdac lost $13 million to an attack. Furthermore, last November, Deribit was hacked for $28 million.
