Liquid a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange has been hit by hackers

[Andrew Reeve]

 

Liquid, a leading Japanese cryptocurrency exchange, has been hacked, with about $100 million (£73 million) in funds removed. Some of the corporation's digital currency wallets have been "compromised," according to the company.

This is the second cryptocurrency theft to have taken place in the last few days. Poly Network, a digital token network, was the target of a $600 million robbery last week.

"We regret to inform you that the warm wallets of #LiquidGlobal have been compromised; we are transferring assets to the cold wallet," the firm announced on Twitter. Warm or 'hot' digital wallets are usually online and meant to make it easier for users to access their cryptocurrency, whereas 'cold' wallets are offline and more difficult to access, and thus far more safer.

Elliptic, a blockchain analytics business, estimated that roughly $97 million in cryptocurrencies had been stolen, with Bitcoin and Ethereum tokens among the haul. Liquid said it was tracking the stolen cryptocurrencies' movements and collaborating with other exchanges to freeze and retrieve the money.

Liquid, which was founded in 2014, the company operates in over 100 countries and serves millions of customers. According to CoinMarketCap data, it is one of the top 20 largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world by daily trading volumes.

A hacker exploited a hole in the system of blockchain site Poly Network last week, stealing $600 million "You have hacked one of the largest sums of money in defi [decentralised finance] history," Poly Network claimed. Since then, the hacker known as Mr White Hat has returned over $427 million in assets.

Source: BBC