Over $90 million in cryptocurrency was stolen after a top Japanese exchange is hacked

August 23, 2021-On Thursday, Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Liquid said it had been hit by a cyberattack that saw hackers make off with digital coins worth $97 million.

Liquid said a few of its digital currency wallets were “compromised,” and hackers transferred the assets to four other wallets.

“We are currently investigating and will provide regular updates,” Liquid wrote in the tweet.

“In the meantime, deposits and withdrawals will be suspended.”

Liquid did not estimate the loss. It says Japan’s Financial Services Agency regulates it.

A blockchain analytics company known as Elliptic said its analysis showed that the hackers obtained about $97 million in cryptocurrencies.

It was reported that $45 million in tokens were converted to ethereum through decentralised exchanges and blockchain-based platforms that did not require the use of intermediaries, such as Uniswap and SushiSwap, as part of the overall haul.

This allows the hacker to avoid having these assets frozen, which is a possibility with a large number of Ethereum tokens, according to Elliptic.

According to CoinMarketCap data, Liquid is among the top 20 cryptocurrency exchanges in the world in terms of daily trading volumes, having processed more than $133 million in transactions in the last 24 hours.

Approximately one week after the first major crypto heist, the second major crypto heist has taken place. On August 10, hackers gained access to the Poly Network, a decentralised finance firm, and stole more than $600 million in digital tokens.

Unusually, the hackers engaged in dialogue with the organisation they had targeted and returned nearly all of the funds, which was a rare turn of events. Nonetheless, more than $200 million is still locked away in a hacker-controlled account that requires a password from the hacker.