Hackers steal even micro crypto tokens as $70M theft hits UPCX
Crypto criminals grab whatever they can, as demonstrated by the fresh hack of a blockchain-powered micro project.
Image by Cybernews
Crypto criminals grab whatever they can, as demonstrated by the fresh hack of a blockchain-powered micro project.
As blockchain analysts at crypto security firm Cyvers flagged multiple suspicious transactions involving UPCX yesterday, the team behind the blockchain-powered payment system confirmed "unauthorized activity."
The team said it involved their management account but didn't provide any other details.
🚨ALERT🚨Our system has detected multiple suspicious transactions involving @Upcxofficial
undefined 🚨 Cyvers Alerts 🚨 (@CyversAlerts) April 1, 2025
It appears that someone gained access to the address 0x4C....3583E, upgraded the 'ProxyAdmin' contract, and executed the 'withdrawByAdmin' function, resulting in the transfer of 18.4M… pic.twitter.com/ytCmwpNtE1
According to Cyvers, someone gained access to one of the crypto addresses of UPCX, upgraded the “ProxyAdmin” contract, and executed the “withdrawByAdmin” function, effectively stealing 18.4 million UPC ($74 million) tokens from three different management accounts.
Meanwhile, the platform suspended deposits and withdrawals while claiming that their client assets "remain safe and unaffected."
"We are actively investigating the issue and will provide updates as soon as possible," UPCX said without elaborating. No further updates have been provided since confirming the "unauthorized activity" yesterday.
UPC is a micro-capitalization token ($16.7 million), ranked 1,153rd by CoinGecko. Its 24-hour trading volume is just above $1.1 million, meaning that if the hacker wanted to dump the stolen funds at once or in large batches, it would effectively crash the price of UPC. In either case, only 0.5% of the total UPC supply is currently available in the market, explaining how the stolen funds are worth more than the entire market capitalization of this crypto asset.
However, UPC traders seem unfazed by the theft, which is four times larger than the market capitalization of the token. After an initial correction following the news, the price has now regained all the losses and is even up 2% in a day. In either case, there's no way to know who's behind these trades and whether the UPCX team is buying the token as well.