BigONE crypto exchange hacked, promises to cover all $27M in losses

Centralized crypto exchange BigONE has confirmed reports circulating online that it was hacked to the tune of $27 million and promised to cover all losses from the theft.

The company said it "detected abnormal movements involving a portion of the platform’s assets" as criminals targeted the exchange's hot wallet. BigONE claims that the attack path has been identified and contained, as the platform is working with blockchain analysts trying to track the stolen funds.

"Deposit and trading services are expected to resume within a few hours. Withdrawal functions will be restored after additional security reinforcement," the exchange said, adding that they're now using their internal security reserves "to replenish user funds."

Among the stolen assets are bitcoin (BTC), ethereum (ETH), stablecoins, memecoins such as dogecoin (DOGE) and shiba inu (SHIB), and several other altcoins.

Meanwhile, crypto security specialists are looking into possible attack vectors exploited by the hacker.

For example, Cyvers said that the attacker compromised the production network and tampered with the logic of servers managing account operations and risk controls, which allowed them to withdraw funds.

SlowMist added that BigONE was exploited due to a supply chain attack. However, the private keys were not leaked.

"Supply chain attacks are the silent killers of crypto. When your dependencies get compromised, your security is only as strong as your weakest npm package. This is why auditing your full stack matters, not just smart contracts," an X user @TheFUDslayer said in response to the incident.

Meanwhile, prominent blockchain sleuth ZachXBT chimed in as well, saying that he doesn't "feel bad for the team as this [centralized exchange] processed a good bit of volume from pig butchering, romance, [and] investment scams."

"Hot take: if more sketchy offshore exchanges get hacked for large sums, it would be beneficial for the industry (MEXC, Kucoin, etc.) [because] it would be a natural cleanse without government overreach," ZachXBT said.

According to Coingecko data, BigONE's reported trading volume in the past week ranged between $400 million and $1.5 billion. However, the data aggregator gives the exchange a trust score of 6 out of 10, which is designed to evaluate the legitimacy of an exchange’s trading volume.