Crypto Exchange LCX Hot Wallet Hacked for $7.94 Million

Liechtenstein-based crypto exchange LCX has had one of its hot wallets compromised, the hacker getting away with almost US$8 million in various cryptocurrencies.

First Big Hack of the Year

On January 9, the LCX team and crypto-security firm PeckShield detected a breach of one of the LCX hot wallets. On further inspection, it was established that the theft had taken place on January 8 between 11:23pm and 11:37pm CET.

Only LCX Hot Wallet Compromised

According to the LCX update, the hacker got away with an estimated US$7.94 million in Ethereum (ETH), USDC, Sand Token (SAND), LCX Token (LCX), and various others. The exchange did, however, manage to freeze US$700,000 and commented that none of its users or other LCX wallets were impacted.

The assets were moved to the hacker’s ETH wallet address (0x165402279F2C081C54B00f0E08812F3fd4560A05), which has since been flagged. In the meantime, the platform has paused all deposits and withdrawals, and the incident has been reported to several Liechtenstein authorities. It hasn’t yet been revealed how the hacker got access to the hot wallet.

Hopes for a More Secure DeFi in 2022

This latest hack follows on the heels of the US$200 million BitMart hack that took place in early December and the $450 million Bilaxy hack just before that.

Last year was a rough one for the DeFi ecosystem, having sustained an estimated US$10.2 billion in losses from hacks, bugs, fraud, exploitations and other malevolent activities, according to a report by IMMUNEFI. This represented a 137 percent increase on the losses suffered in 2020.