KuCoin recovers 84% of funds lost in $280 million hack

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Digital currency exchange KuCoin has successfully recovered as much as 84% of the funds lost to hacks in September, in an encouraging sign for those customers affected by the theft.

Back in September, the exchange was hacked to the tune of $280 million, leaving clients short of their digital currency stored on the exchange. Now, KuCoin CEO and co-founder Johnny Lyu has said the firm has successfully recovered the bulk of the funds from those involved in the attack.

In a tweet, Lyu said the recovery had been achieved with “approaches like on-chain tracking, contract upgrade and judicial recovery.”

(1/3) Latest updates about #KuCoin Security Incident: So far, 84% of the affected assets have been recovered via approaches like on-chain tracking, contract upgrade and judicial recovery. As asked by the law enforcements, we will publish all the details once the case is closed.

— Johnny_KuCoin (@lyu_johnny) November 11, 2020

While law enforcement requirements restrict Lyu or KuCoin from detailing the full recovery process until the case is closed, Lyu said the exchange had now resumed services for 176 tokens via the platform.

It’s expected that the remaining crypto assets will be back online by November 22, as the exchange continues its recovery from the hack.

The funds stolen back in September were predominantly ERC-20 tokens, accounting for $147 million—over half of the total amount stolen. The remainder was split between $87 million in Stellar, and $30 million in BTC.

Some $160 million of the lost funds were recovered within a matter of days, through a combination of forking, redeploying contracts and blocking certain wallet addresses associated with the hackers.

Efforts to recover the remainder are still in progress, and the firm remains confident of a full recovery in due course.

The announcement from Lyu follows on just days after a wallet associated with the hack sent more ERC-20 tokens to an Ethereum address holding $13.6 million. That address has also been involved in sending funds to another Ethereum address which holds a balance of $110 million.

While the recoveries are good news for those affected by the hack, the case is yet another reminder of the need for secure crypto storage, off-platform to avoid losing out in hacks of this kind.  

See also: CoinGeek Live panel on Digital Currency & Global Compliance: Tools & Tips for Exchanges, Wallets & Other Service Providers.