New Zealand-based crypto exchange Cryptopia on Wednesday disclosed official estimates of the loss it endured in 2019’s first crypto exchange hack.
In a series of Tweets on February 27, Cryptopia revealed that in the “worst case” scenario, the exchange lost 9.4 percent of its total holdings.
Update: We are continuing to work on assessing the impact incurred as a result of the hack in January. Currently, we have calculated that worst case 9.4% of our total holdings was stolen. Please keep an eye on our page for further updates today.
— Cryptopia Exchange (@Cryptopia_NZ) February 27, 2019
The exchange, however, did not reveal the exact figure for the loss.
First Crypto Exchange Attack of This Year
The cyber attack on Cryptopia was the first such crypto exchange-related incident in 2019. The report surfaced on January 15 as the exchange announced that a “significant” amount of Cryptocurrencies were stolen from the exchange and assuring that the New Zealand police is investigating the matter.
The lack of any official figure put Blockchain analytics firms to work with one such company estimating that the exchange has lost $16 million worth of ETH and other ERC-20 tokens. Elementus also claimed that the hackers were dumping the stolen digital tokens on various major exchanges including Bitbox, Binance, Huobi, and HitBTC and looking to cash out.
A few days later, the same analytics firm again claimed that the attackers continued to siphon funds from the exchange while the case was under investigation. This time the loss was estimated at around $175,000, and the report also claimed that 17,000 wallets of the exchange's users were affected.
In the recently posted update, the exchange has assured that it is “securing each wallet individually” to ensure the security of the platform.
Update: We are securing each wallet individually to ensure the exchange is fully secure when we resume trading. We have more updates to come today, please keep an eye on our page.
— Cryptopia Exchange (@Cryptopia_NZ) February 27, 2019
Permission to Resume Operation
After a month-long investigation by the New Zealand police, the control of the exchange’s offices and operating premises were handed over to Cryptopia on mid-February and the police department also gave the go-ahead to resume its day-to-day operations.
Update: The police have now given us access back to our building, while they continue their investigations. Our staff are working relentlessly to evaluate the funds that were stolen.
— Cryptopia Exchange (@Cryptopia_NZ) February 14, 2019
The exchange, however, did not resume the trading services on the platform and its long silence on the matter had only escalated further concerns in the community.
Today, the crypto exchange also asked users not to transfer any funds to the old wallets as the exchange is issuing new wallets.
Update: As a result of the new wallets please immediately refrain from depositing funds into old Cryptopia addresses. We have more updates to come tomorrow, keep an eye on our page.
— Cryptopia Exchange (@Cryptopia_NZ) February 27, 2019
On February 28, the crypto exchange tweeted that it is planning to reopen its trading services on March 4.
Update: We are aiming to have the Cryptopia site re-opened as read only by Monday.
— Cryptopia Exchange (@Cryptopia_NZ) February 28, 2019
