The tech media is continuing to have a panic attack about the Cryptopia network – and for good reason.
As of last week, the tally was up to around $16 million worth of coins stolen from the platform out of core wallets.
The moral of the story seems to be that with control of the core wallets, hackers can just reach in and take what they want.
Essentially, by getting their hands on the private keys, and blocking the legitimate users from handling them, the hackers now have control.
It’s a scary time for anybody invested with this enterprise, and after suspending services and putting out some confusing communications around the issue, Cryptopia top brass admit that the dwell time has been at least two weeks.
“As per today’s post, the attack continues,” writes Abeer Anwaar at Blockpublisher. “The hackers have gotten away with 1,675 ETH from 17,000 Cryptopia wallets. … Furthermore, the report also claims that the 5,000 wallets that were emptied when the platform was first breached have now been refilled. Apparently, Cryptopia has no control over its Ethereum wallets but the hackers are very much in control of them. People in the crypto community are of the opinion that the hacks aren’t separate events, that its not a second attack on Cryptopia’s wallets, instead it is a continuation of the hack. Reportedly, it seems that the same hacker or hackers are responsible for this ongoing breach. Because the stolen funds have been transferred to the addresses that were used in the initial hack. Now, both the known addresses have been flagged and the public has been warned as well.”
Reddit users who have assets in Cryptopia are, to put it inelegantly, freaking out.
“Most of my crypto funds were transferred to the exchange on the date the hack happened (I was trading them actively) and I am also concerned I will never see them again,” wrote u/jollyjoker747 two weeks ago. “I noticed that even ‘BIG’ media providers like Cointelegraph and Coindesk make wrong statements about the hack and many people on twitter/reddit have no idea what the hack means to their funds on Cryptopia.” This user has, to date, been providing others with comnmentary and updates on a situation that seems wildly untenable: people worked hard to amass coins, and now, their assets are just missing.
The Cryptopia case will likely become a bellwether for crypto stability and anti-fraud progress overall – keep an eye on what happens as the security people at the exchange try to stanch the flow.
