The British cryptocurrency exchange Lykke has curtailed all operations due to a "security incident" that led to the loss of $22 million.
The on-chain researcher SomaXBT was the first to draw attention to a possible hack. According to him, the attack occurred on June 4, and two days later a message appeared on the platform's website about the shutdown "until the next notification".
on June 4, @lykke CTX got exploited and lost $19.5 million worth crypto assets but team still trying to hide this fact
BTC (158 btc)
bc1qt64756h9aylujm9tpk826zndegpxtngmr6eqad
ETH (2161 eth)
0x9172a72f5009ca609833819763A2722e53806443 pic.twitter.com/bT4TaQLukY
Together with MetaMask developer Taylor Monahan, the researcher was able to identify four hacker-related wallets in the bitcoin and Ethereum networks.
According to on-chain data, the criminal almost immediately converted ETH into DAI stablecoin, and distributed BTC to several addresses.
The total trading volume on Lykke over the past month was about $2.5 million. Its users are currently unable to withdraw assets from the platform. Some report zero balances.
Hey @lykke - what is going on with your exchange? Trading seems not possible, withdrawal and deposit are not possible. Tjere are rumors that the exchange got hacked? #lykke #bitcoin #exchange #possiblehack #crypto
— sponge-investigator (@spongeinvestiga) June 8, 2024At the same time, representatives of the exchange did not leave any official comments, except for a notice on the website and an e-mail notification of the suspension of work.
In a comment to DLNews, Lykke CEO Richard Olsen stated that the company is "still investigating the causes of the incident."
"In the meantime, you can be sure that your funds are safe. Lykke is a diversified company with strong capital reserves," he said.
Recall that at the end of May, the Japanese crypto exchange DMM Bitcoin lost $305 million during a hack. The platform intends to attract financial support to compensate users.
In June, the Velocore decentralized exchange was attacked. The hacker withdrew approximately $6.8 million in Ethereum from the pools in the Linea and zkSyncEra L2 networks.