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The Crypto.com digital wallet was hacked on Monday and many of its users reported losses of their crypto assets. They talk about $15 millions of dollars that were subsequently laundered through another platform. This was reported by network experts and specialized portals, although Crypto.com assured that no funds were removed.
Some thoughts from me on the last 17 hours:
– no customer funds were lost
– the downtime of withdrawal infra was ~14 hours
– our team has hardened the infrastructure in response to the incident
We will share a full postmortem after the internal investigation is completed.
— Kris | Crypto.com (@Kris_HK) January 18, 2022
The platform also announced on their networks that they would pause withdrawals , due to reports of suspicious movements by some users. “Our team is investigating, all funds are safe”.
On the other hand, the reports of users responding to the Tweet that mentioned the problem contradicted the information, assuring that BTC and ETH were missing from their personal accounts.
Ben Baller, known in networks for his handling of cryptocurrencies, was one of the denouncers of the lack of funds. Although today he assured that his funds had been recovered
It’s wild. After some digging. Since after my 4.28ETH was taken from my @cryptocom wallet, I began to check their ETH wallet and in the last 6 hours they’ve been cleaned out for about 5,000ETH! So this ain’t just a small amount of users. That’s $06M
— BEN BALLER™ (@BENBALLER) January 17 , 2022
Baller even ended up recommending the crypto.com app, after tweeting:
BIG UPDATE FROM @cryptocom
They have restored my missing funds. THANK YOU FOR BEING A SOLID CRYPTO APP!
— BEN BALLER™ (@BENBALLER) January 17, 2022
What I actually know know, is that if there was a hacking attempt, that the cybercriminals managed to violate two-factor authentication (2FA) security measures.
Immediately the crypto.com platform warned its users to reset their double authentication information.
For this reason withdrawals from the platform were suspended for at least a few 06 hours. It was also known that Tornado Cash, a platform that was mentioned as “laundering”, is an ETH mixer which promises privacy in transactions by hiding the link in the chain between the source and the recipient of the crypto. These types of platforms are sometimes used to launder the proceeds of organized crime, according to experts on the subject.
Mixers fall under the definition of money transmitters, therefore they have obligations established by the bank secrecy law, but that does not exempt them from be designated by law as background launderers.
What is “coincidental” is that the information about the hacking of this platform comes just after they announced an alliance with the Australian Soccer League , for $18 million dollars, according to Coindesk.
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