The infamous Cryptopia hack of January 14, which led to over $16 million in stolen Ethereum (ETH) and ERC20 tokens, has been under close investigation by New Zealand police and specialists worldwide.
Thanks to the open nature of cryptocurrencies on the blockchain, analysts and investigators have been successful in tracking the stolen crypto funds, leading major cryptocurrency exchanges to liquidate $3.2 million in stolen tokens on February 4.
Blockchain analysis firm Elementus has been keeping close tabs on the proceedings following the Cryptopia hack, and announced via Twitter the liquidation of $3.2 million tokens on major crypto exchanges.
Cryptopia update
As of this morning, the hackers have liquidated $3.2m in tokens, with the bulk of that going to Etherdelta pic.twitter.com/QVbb8mSszX— Elementus (@elementus_io) February 4, 2019
The Cryptopia Hack
The New Zealand-based cryptocurrency exchange Cryptopia suffered what’s being called the first major security breach of 2019. When the exchange was initially hacked, Cryptopia told users they were undergoing unscheduled maintenance. They issued a number of updates before finally revealing on January 15 that they had been breached.
There was much uncertainty regarding the sheer scale of the hack, because Cryptopia kept any details on the downlow, as they were working closely with authorities. However, as previously reported by IIB, blockchain analytics firm Elementus brought to light an array of information regarding the security breach.
At first, it was thought the hack resulted in the loss of around $3.6 million worth of crypto, until Elementus informed the crypto community that a staggering $16 million was actually stolen.
Following the initial attack on January 14, hackers continued to withdraw crypto funds from 17,000 wallets for 2 weeks, resulting in an additional 1,675 ETH ($175,875) stolen. Some Cryptopia users were even repeat victims, seemingly unaware of the hack, who had replenished their wallets following the attack.
$3.2 Million of Stolen Funds Liquidated
Fortunately, the Cryptopia hackers should have a very difficult time trying to sell the stolen crypto funds, as the stolen cryptocurrencies’ transactional data is publicly available on the Ethereum blockchain. As such, investigators and specialists are keeping a close eye on their movements.
When the breach first happened, hackers quickly tried to sell a portion of stolen funds on Binance, the exchange was quick to react and froze the funds.
However, according to Elementus, as of February 4, a total of $3.2 million in stolen tokens from Cryptopia have been liquidated by various crypto exchanges, most of them going through Etherdelta.
How much do you think the hackers have been able to sell thus far? Will the hackers ever be able to sell more of the stolen funds? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
