Earlier today, popular cryptocurrency options exchange Deribit was hacked for $28 million. The funds are safe and losses are covered by their reserves, a company spokesman said.
Deribit announced on Twitter today that its hot wallet was hacked, resulting in a $28 million theft. The team successfully isolated the attack on its BTC, ETH, and USDC hot wallets. According to the Twitter post, none of the company’s cold storage addresses were affected.
As part of an ongoing security review, Deribit had to halt payouts, including custodians Copper Clearloop and Cobo, until the exchange was 100% confident in its security following the hack. The company added that the sent deposits will continue to be processed and will be credited to the account after confirmation of the required amount.
Business as Usual
According to Deribit’s Telegram chat messages, Deribit transactions are proceeding as usual. “Thanks to our hot wallet policy, we are able to limit the loss of user funds,” noted a Deribit support rep. Deribit’s insurance fund was immune to the hack as the exchange also paid for the losses. “Deribit’s financial position remains strong and ongoing operations will not be impacted,” the statement said.
A Deribit spokesman said the company intends to resume withdrawals as soon as possible and is now reviewing “all security measures”. The platform is also currently conducting a full review of the incident to provide more details on the vulnerability that may have caused the issue, the person added. The representative said the hack was the first such attack and loss for Deribit since the company was founded.
Founded in 2016, Deribit is one of the largest crypto derivatives exchanges in the world, allowing users to trade crypto futures and options. At the time of writing, Deribit’s daily trading volume reached $280 million, according to CoinGecko.
