Cryptocurrency markets were spooked today after a routine wallet maintenance at US-based cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex has sparked fears of a hack, yet the company has assured people that it was just a scheduled process.
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The rumours, however, seem to lack any concrete evidence and thus far no trades or accounts have been reported as affected by users of the exchange. Yet, it is not uncommon for crypto exchanges to be targeted by hackers and a failed hacking attempt is always a possibility as well.
Poloniex tweeted on Thursday late afternoon that there could be delays in deposits and withdrawals due to maintenance work. The delays, however, were extended when the maintenance took longer than usual. The upgrades began around 12.30 p.m. ET but has extended without further notices until now.
We’ll be doing scheduled wallet maintenance today at ~12:30pm EST. During this time deposits and withdrawals may be impacted for some currencies but should be running again shortly after that!
— Poloniex Exchange (@Poloniex) ٨ مارس، ٢٠١٨
The rumours were spreading among crypto-market participants as Binance, one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, suffered an outage on Wednesday. Some crypto traders have floated a theory that all Binance Altcoins were dumped at the same time as a result of a widespread API-related attack. The users who used API keys to trade with bots found their accounts automatically buying the VIA coin.
The recent problems of major Bitcoin exchanges have sparked a mix of criticism, concern and sympathy from users.
In January, Poloniex disclosed that some of its customer balances have been inaccurately recorded. The exchange temporarily ceased forced liquidations and announced that the balances will be corrected.
In addition, the digital asset trading service warned last week against an impostor Poloniex app in the Google Play Store. “Do not use this; it may be malicious. There is no official Poloniex app,” it said.
Poloniex was recently the subject of news blasts after the Goldman Sachs-backed Circle acquired the cryptocurrency exchange in a deal reportedly worth $400 million
