KuCoin on track to reopen all operations after recovering 84% of the $280 million hack

The Asia-based cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin managed to recover 84% of the funds lost in the massive hack incident on September 25. The co-founder and the CEO of the exchange, Jonny Lyu, confirmed on his Twitter account that on-chain tracking, contract upgrade, and judicial recovery allowed to recover of about $235 million out of $280 million stolen by the hackers.

Lyu also mentioned that many people and institutions helped the platform to overcome the incident and get the money back. The exchange has resumed trading for 176 tokens, while the full functionality will be restored by November 22. Lyu added:

As the People's Exchange, I'm glad that we have dealt with this incident in an open and transparent manner, always putting our users first. Looking forward, KuCoin will continue to safeguard our users and bring more crypto hidden gems to the world as we always did.

KuCoin was severely hit by the incident

KuCoin's hacking episode is the third-largest theft in the history of cryptocurrency trading platforms. The attacker exploited a vulnerability in the security measures to steal various assets, including Bitcoins, Litecoin, XRP, and a large number of ERC20 tokens. 

After the incident, several cryptocurrency projects promised to freeze the stolen coins once they arrive on their accounts. However, hackers effectively laundered coins via decentralized protocols for weeks. By the end of September, they managed to cash out tokens worth about $13 million. 

Read our detailed review of how the attackers found a leeway in the decentralized world and managed to get away with the loot.

The platform overhauled its security system and launched a strategic update for the hot wallets. At the beginning of October, deposits and withdrawals for Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether were resumed.

About a week ago, the hackers became active again. They were noticed using Bitcoin mixers to transfer ERC20 tokens to a new Ethereum address.