Crypto Exchange Loses $80M In Major Heist Involving Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain And Polygon-Based Assets

The hot wallet — a wallet where readily accessible funds are held — of cryptocurrency exchange AscendEX was hacked and tens of millions of dollars worth of Ethereum ETH/USD, Binance Smart Chain BNB/USD and Polygon MATIC/USD based assets were stolen.

What Happened: AscendEX lost about $77.7 million in the hack, according to a Sunday Cointelegraph report. After realizing that the platform was compromised, AscendEX warned its users but also reassured them that since the cryptocurrency reserve held in the firm's cold wallet was not accessed by the attackers, user funds have not been impacted.

Blockchain security and data analytics firm PeckShield reported that about $60 million worth of tokens were transferred on the Ethereum blockchain, while $9.2 million of assets were stolen on the Binance Smart Chain and $8.5 million on Polygon. Assets stolen include memecoin Shiba Inu SHIB/USD and stablecoins USD Coin USDC/USD and Tether USDT/USD.

See Also: TOP 5 BITCOIN AND CRYPTO SCAMS

The report follows the official Twitter Inc. TWTR/USD account of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi being hacked to promote a Bitcoin BTC/USD scam. The account also propagated fake news about the Indian government adopting Bitcoin as legal tender and giving away 500 BTC to the country's citizens.

Related Link: Hackers Steal $200M Worth Of Shiba Inu, Saitama, And Other Tokens From Bitmart Exchange