European digital currency exchange hacked for over $5M

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Eterbase has been hacked for roughly $5.3 million; according to an announcement from the Slovakia-based digital currency exchange, the Eterbase hot wallet was breached and six digital currencies—BTC, ETH/ERC-20, XRP, TRON (TRX), Tezos (XTZ), and Algorand (ALGO)—were stolen. Shortly after the hack occurred, Eterbase announced that they suspended trading and withdrawals from their platform until September 10.

Dear users, the exchange is currently in maintenance mode because our hot wallets were compromised last night:https://t.co/XWZZoWxLd0

Sorry for the inconvenience and please have some patience untill we solve the issue.

— ETERBASE (@ETERBASE) September 8, 2020

What was stolen?

In their official announcement, Eterbase declined to say how much was stolen from the exchange. Instead, Eterbase named the wallets that had been breached, saying,

We have contacted all centralized exchanges that might be receiving these illicit funds. Due to an ongoing investigation, more details can not be announced. Sorry for the inconvenience and please have some patience until we solve the issue.

According to The Block Research, $5,323,517 was stolen in total. $3,945,664 was stolen from the ETH/ERC-20 wallet, $471,559 was stolen from the XTZ wallet, $406,620 was stolen from the ALGO wallet, $339,573 was stolen from the XRP wallet, $114,954 was stolen from the BTC wallet, and $45,148 was stolen from the exchange’s TRX hot wallet.

What is Eterbase?

The story around this breach is still developing; not much is known about the Bratislava, Slovakia based exchange, and it was not on anyone’s radar until this hack took place. According to CoinGecko, the exchange processes roughly $3 million per day in trading volume, and from the looks of their web statistics and social media following, the exchange has a relatively small community (8,238 twitter followers).

What’s next for Eterbase?

In regards to their next steps, Eterbase said, 

We have reported the matter to law enforcement and we are cooperating closely in the investigation. We want to assure our clients that we are taking all necessary steps to ensure that the amount of their deposit does not suffer any damage as a result of a hacker attack.