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Crypto thieves steal cool $28m from hot wallet

Updated on: 03 November 2022

Damien Black
Senior Journalist

Bitcoin being picked from person's pocket — Image by Shutterstock

Cryptocurrency exchange platform Deribit has confessed to being robbed of $28 million by hackers, but says it has reopened for business after running cybersecurity checks in the wake of the attack.

The digital money derivatives company made a Twitter announcement on November 2, saying its hot wallet had been “compromised,” leading to the theft of bitcoin (BTC), ethereum (ETH), and digital dollar-pegged stablecoin USDC.

Deribit took pains to reassure customers, saying: “Client funds are safe and loss is covered by company reserves,” adding that those keeping theirs in cold, or offline, wallets were safe, citing “company procedure to keep 99% of our user funds in cold storage to limit the impact of these type of events.”

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Deribit declares it is open for business again, after taking a hit of $28m in losses to crypto thieves

Withdrawals were temporarily suspended while Deribit cleared up the mess caused by the latest crypto heist, but earlier today the Panama-based company declared: “Deribit has just re-opened regular withdrawals for BTC, ETH and USDC after we opened Copper Clearloop and Cobo withdrawals earlier.”

Deribit has posted a link to the account suspected of being behind the attack, and said that deposits made before the announcement would still be processed and credited to recipients.

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