Cryptopia Hacked Again While Under Liquidation

Back in January of 2019, Cryptopia was hacked — leading to losses worth $1.97 million. 

The New Zealand-based exchange has since started liquidation procedures —  but they’ve been hit yet again.

Losses From First Hack Still Not Recovered

Following the 2019 hack that cost them nearly 2 million dollars, their liquidator, Grant Thorton, has started allowing former users of the exchange to send them claims for cryptocurrency lost back in 2019.

This incident alone constituted a loss of 15% of their entire digital currency stash and is considered the most damaging incident of theft in the history of New Zealand — and the proceeds are worth far more now than at the time of the theft, due to the explosion of multiple cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin chief among them. 

Stakenet — a U.S.-based creditor — stated that $45k worth of XSN had been transferred out of its cold wallet on the 1st of February. 

However, Grant Thorton stated that the transaction was not authorized — which makes one wonder how the hack could have occurred, as an attack on a cold wallet is much harder to pull off than an attack on a hot wallet, due to its intentional lack of connectivity to the Internet. 

Stakenet commented that Grant Thorton should take responsibility for the incident, assuming it happened on their watch.

“If this unauthorized transaction has happened under Grant Thornton’s watch then they need to explain to the users why they failed to secure … [their] assets like they were supposed to do and how someone was able to access them.”

Although Grant Thornton did not make a public statement regarding the issue, it’s been understood that they have contacted the police about the security breach and are investigating it internally.