BitMart says it's resumed crypto withdrawals three days after hackers stole almost $200 million in funds

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BitMart says it's resumed crypto withdrawals three days after hackers stole almost $200 million in funds
HackerThana Prasongsin
  • Sheldon Xia, the founder of BitMart exchange said on Twitter that withdrawals will be resumed "step by step".
  • Xia said the company would resume deposits and withdrawals for ETH and related tokens from late Tuesday.
  • On Saturday, $196 million was stolen from BitMart users' cryptocurrency wallets.
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Crypto exchange BitMart said early on Wednesday it would gradually resume withdrawals, three days after hackers ran away with close to $200 million worth of funds from its clients' cryptocurrency wallets.

Sheldon Xia, BitMart founder, said via a Twitter post that the exchange would resume deposits and withdrawals for ether and related tokens. Deposits were set to resume from 10 pm and 11 pm EST Tuesday.

"The deposit and withdrawal function of all tokens will be resumed step by step, along with the recovery progress of security testing and public chain development," Xia tweeted.

"No worries, we are marching forward, security will always be the first priority."

BitMart, which is based in the Cayman Islands, also told its clients Tuesday that it was hosting a security upgrade and replacing all deposit addresses including bitcoin, ether, sol, and all other tokens.

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On Saturday, BitMart said in a blog post it had identified a security breach related to two of its hot wallets. Up to $198 million was taken from wallets on the ethereum network and the binance smart chain blockchain using private keys that the culprits had gained access to. The exchange had said it will use its own funding to compensate affected users.

BitMart is not the only exchange to be hacked using a private key. In early November, $139 million was stolen from the Boy X Highspeed, decentralized cross-chain exchange. Neo Wang, the company's CEO told CoinDesk this was due to a leaked administrator key.

In August, more than $600 million worth of cryptocurrencies was stolen from the poly network, but nearly half of the money was then returned.

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