New Zealand-based cryptocurrency exchange Cryptopia was reportedly hacked not once, but twice this past January. “Millions of dollars” in crypto was lost, including Ether (ETH) and Centrality (CENNZ). Cryptopia went dark shortly after the malicious activity in an effort to repair the damage and put everything back in order, only to finally succumb to its wounds last week and be placed in a coffin. The crypto community wasn’t ready to give up the hunt for what happened to the funds, and many of them have reportedly now been found.
According to Elementus, a blockchain analysis company, Cryptopia lost about $16 million in total, with hackers getting away with ETH, CENNZ, Lisk ML, Pillar, Enjin Coin, LINA and many more. A tweet by AMLT Token & Network from a few days ago indicates how the coins were distributed, stating, “As the #CryptopiaHack story continues to unfold, almost all tokens landed on major exchanges while the #ETH still sits on a hackers address according to @Coinfirm_io coinfirm.com. Below is @0xProject $ZRX @KyberNetwork $KNC @PowerLedger_io $powr going to exchanges.”
The tweet included a graph of crypto movements, assumedly showing how the different currencies were being spread.
A later tweet by Confirm stated that 10 ETH – out of the 30,790 that were stolen – ended up on “major crypto exchanges.” It didn’t, however, specify to which exchanges the funds were sent, only offering, “The #Cryptopia hacker just moved funds to a major #crypto exchange according to Coinfirm! The hacker sent 30790 #ETH (~$7.67M) to a new address (Yellow) and then sent 10 ETH (~$2500) to an exchange address (green) that then landed on their Hot Wallet.”
The tracking of the stolen funds has become an obsession with some crypto enthusiasts and analysts because there is a working theory that Cryptopia was never hacked. It is theorized that it was an inside job, a suggestion reiterated by Reddit user “seemee89,” who stated, “It’s easy to understand. Cryptopia can’t follow legal frameworks. Cryptopia pays hackers to hack exchange or they ‘hack’ themselves. Cryptopia closes the company and founders are swimming with dolphins on Fiji with Eth and [Bitcoin Core] earned. So, this Eth is actually not hackers ownership but founder ownership, right?”
New to blockchain? Check out CoinGeek’s Blockchain for Beginners section, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about blockchain technology.
