Cryptopia, the New Zealand based cryptocurrency exchange was allegedly hacked on 14th January. The hackers were able to steal cryptocurrencies worth millions of dollars. According to the exchange, the local police authorities and New Zealand’s unit of high tech crimes are looking into the matter.
Cryptopia Hacked!
Cryptopia informed its users about the incident in a tweet yesterday explaining that the exchange had suffered a security breach which led to the loss of funds due to hacking. Cryptopia exchange was later put into maintenance while the team was trying to assess the damage. The exchange shall remain in maintenance mode and trading will be suspended until the issue has been resolved. The website of the exchange itself is offline.
On 13th January 19,391 ETH (Ethereum) worth around $2.5 million and 48,029,306 CENNZ tokens (Centrality) worth around $1.18 million were transferred from Cryptopia exchange to unknown wallets. However, the owner of the wallet is not yet confirmed. It could be the exchange itself or the hackers.
Here are the details of the transactions:
Transaction 1: 19,391 ETH
https://etherscan.io/tx/0x8a7c2b34f23eee02401e7c3fa1ea2ce8d3132e7ca3811d673ca35898c9535aae
Transaction 2: 48,029,306 CENNZ
https://etherscan.io/tx/0x31a58df14ea3420878267e2b9cdd242d983b5298ef48c5cd9a799ed10605f393
Crypto Reputation:
The increasing number of exchange hackings has led to spreading of negative reputation of cryptocurrencies. People are starting to lose hopes in crypto exchanges. Last year, CoinCheck, a Japenese cryptocurrency exchange was hacked which led to around $500 million of funds being stolen. If such incidences continue to occur, the newcomers in the crypto space will lose confidence over cryptocurrencies and hence the whole cryptocurrency market will have to suffer.
Prominent people in the crypto industry are calling out for people to opt for decentralized exchanges which are much more safer in comparison to the Centralized ones.
