China-based cryptocurrency exchange LB.com is the latest crypto platform to seemingly be targeted by hackers, as the self-described “world’s most secure digital asset exchange” had nearly US$5mln drained from the exchange’s hot wallet.
Hot wallets are used by centralised crypto exchanges as liquidity pools to allow users to buy, sell and trade cryptocurrency.
Blockchain security first Peckshield dropped the news on Wednesday Tweet, detailing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth stolen each in Tether, Polygon, Sandbox, Bored Ape and many other tokens.
The total funds being transferred out from @ZBexchange are ~$4.8M and here is the detailed breakdown of tokens: https://t.co/uMpkvxtOAo pic.twitter.com/xo373Zyge1
— PeckShield Inc. (@peckshield) August 3, 2022
Following the exploit, ZB temporarily placed pauses deposit and withdrawal services, which are still in place at the time of writing.
ZB.com has not officially confirmed that a hack took place – the company is calling it a “failure of some core applications” – but the situation follows a pattern of high-value hacks and exploits in the crypto space in recent weeks and months, including:
Solana
Nearly US$6mln was stolen from up to 8,000 Solana wallets on Tuesday August 2.
After an investigation by developers, ecosystem teams, and security auditors, it appears affected addresses were at one point created, imported, or used in Slope mobile wallet applications. 1/2
— Solana Status (@SolanaStatus) August 3, 2022
Blame has been placed on a security exploit within the Slope Web3 wallet application
Nomad
Ethereum-to-Moonbeam bridging protocol Nomad was exploited for nearly US$200mln on August 2 after a weakness in the sma
Cross-chain bridges – programmes that allows tokens to be transferred between otherwise incompatible blockchains – are particularly singled out by hacker due to the large sums of wealth held in a single point of entry.
Axie Infinity
Play-to-earn (P2E) game Axie Infinity suffered a US$600mln exploit in Marchwhen North Korean hackers used a fake job offer to attract one of the game’s developers.
AXS token fell by over 75% following the attack.