Hong Kong-based crypto exchange CoinEx hacked for $31 million; hackers steal ETH, TRX, MATIC

CoinEx hot wallets lost more than $31 million after they were hacked on September 12.
The hackers made away with ETH, TRX and MATIC, confirmed by the exchange soon after.
In response, CoinEx established an investigative team and assured affected investors that they would be compensated.

Aaryamann Shrivastava FXStreet

Crypto exchange CoinEx fell victim to cybercrime earlier in the day as perpetrators managed to steal millions of dollars worth of crypto assets. While the exchange reassured 100% compensation, users did not hold back from accusing the exchange of rug pull despite CoinEx providing proof-of-reserves.

CoinEx hack leads to ETH, TRX and MATIC theft

CoinEx, a Hong-Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange, confirmed suspicions of hacks earlier on September 12. As huge amounts of outflows from the exchange's hot wallets came to light, security analytics firm PeckShield alerted the exchange and users on X (Twitter).

This was followed by confirmation from the exchange itself, which tweeted,

"On September 12, 2023, our Risk Control System detected anomalous withdrawals from several hot wallet addresses used to store CoinEx's exchange assets…Preliminary assessments indicate unauthorized transactions involving ETH, TRON, and MATIC.

While the exchange did not provide a clear amount as to how much crypto assets were stolen from the hot wallets, PeckShield notified that more than $31 million worth of tokens were taken by the hackers. The hot wallets were drained of $19M worth of ETH, $11.5M in TRON and MATIC, amounting to $295,000.

Our investigation shows @coinexcom has been drained ~$31m in the following chains: ~$19M (ETH), ~$11.5M (TRON), ~$295k (Polygon).

The remaining funds are being transferred into a CoinEx-controlled cold (multi-sig) wallet (w/ $72m) : https://t.co/HYuoQHQddN https://t.co/cE5K5wDrgR pic.twitter.com/lCZ1T2HlTe
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) September 12, 2023

In response to the hack, CoinEx stated that it had established an investigative team and suspended deposit and withdrawal services. The crypto exchange also reassured that the impacted users would be fully compensated for their losses.

However, this reponse did not stop users from accusing the exchange of a potential rug pull despite the fact that CoinEx has established proof-of-reserves. The audit system was first initiated by Binance founder ChangPeng Zhao in response to the FTX collapse to reassure investors of the safety of their funds.

"Promptly recognizing the gravity of the situation, we immediately established a special investigative team " :
"A team made up of ourselves determined that we were completely innocent of any fraud, and we also cleared ourselves after investigating ourselves for any rug pull."
— Baran (@SyLianmm) September 12, 2023

Neither of the affected token's price actions seemed to have borne any negative effect from the hack. FXStreet is awaiting a reply from CoinEx Global in response to the hack.

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Author

Aaryamann Shrivastava

FXStreet

Aaryamann Shrivastava is a Cryptocurrency journalist and market analyst with over 1,000 articles under his name. Graduated with an Honours in Journalism, he has been part of the crypto industry for more than a year now.