The Remitano exchange experienced suspicious transactions as over $2.7 million was drained from its wallet by a single account.
Crypto exchange Remitano experienced large withdrawals under suspicious circumstances on September 14, with some blockchain analysts concluding that it may have been hacked. A total of $2.7 million worth of crypto has been withdrawn through the suspicious transactions. Tether has frozen one address the attacker allegedly used, potentially saving $1.4 million worth of customers’ crypto.
At approximately 12:45 p.m. on September 14, a known Remitano hot wallet began sending funds to an address with no prior history. Approximately $1.4 million worth of Tether (USDT), $208,000 worth of USD Coin (USDC) and 104,000 Ankr tokens (worth $2,000 at the time) were moved to address 0x74530e81E9f4715c720b6b237f682CD0e298B66C.
Blockchain analytics platform Cyvers has alerted the crypto community about the alleged suspicious transactions.
ALERTOur ML-driven system has detected
multiple anomalous transactions with @remitano
exchange, resulting in a total loss of $2.7M across 3
chains.
we contacted the team to halt any additional losses
and initiate efforts to recover suspected stolen funds#CyversAlert pic.twitter.com/lug03WzNh9
— Cyvers Alerts (@CyversAlerts) September 14, 2023
Tether subsequently froze the address to prevent the attacker from cashing out USDT, which prevented $1.4 million of the drained crypto from being moved any further. Remitano has not yet issued a statement regarding the incident.
Remitano is a peer-to-peer crypto exchange and payment processor that focuses on emerging markets. It serves users in Pakistan, Ghana, Venezuela, Cambodia, Kenya, Malaysia, India, South Africa, Vietnam, and Nigeria.
There has been a rash of crypto exchange hacks in 2023 that resulted in leaked private keys and stolen funds. U.S. authorities claim that these attacks were caused by the Lazarus Group, a cybercrime organization believed to have ties to the North Korean government. The group allegedly stole $41 from gambling site Stake on September 4 and drained $27 million from Coinex on September 12.
This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.
Read More from Tom Blackstone on cointelegraph.com