Bitrue Exchange Hacked, XRP and Cardano (ADA) Stolen
The heist exploited a security system within the exchange, draining user funds worth above $4 million.
The latest exchange hack affected Bitrue, a Singapore market operator, targeted exclusively Ripple’s XRP and Cardano (ADA). Bitrue lost between $4 and $5 million worth of digital assets, promising to refund the losses 100%. The relatively small heist shows that exchanges are still vulnerable to thefts, also depending on the technicalities of each separate asset.
Bitrue reacted immediately, explaining the hack in a Twitter thread:
https://twitter.com/BitrueOfficial/status/1144066874147131392
The funds were moved to several leading exchanges, including Huobi, Bittrex, ChangeNOW, Exmo.me, and Coinswitch.co, reportedTheNextWeb. Huobi, Bittrex, and ChangeNOW cooperated to freeze $1.35 million’s worth of assets. Some of the funds were stored to personal wallets and remain unmoved.
The hacker did not attack a cold wallet, but managed to access user balances and withdraw funds. The exchange lost 9.3 million XRP and 2.5 million ADA. While the funds are relatively small compared to other heists, this time, XRP will have to show its capabilities in reversing transactions.
This may be a double-edged sword for the asset. On the one hand, safety and user-friendliness are seen as a positive feature. But immutability and the fact that no central authority can reverse a transaction are seen as the positive features for digital assets. Some experts, however, comment that a reversal is not possible or simple for the XRP distributed ledger.
Bitrue also had a special relationship with Ripple, potentially to become xRapid partner:
https://twitter.com/JohnSmi13108865/status/1143253959395688449
Recently, Bitrue moved on to attract more XRP investors, making it even more preferable for the XRP community:
https://twitter.com/XRPcryptowolf/status/1142158513491402755
XRP is becoming a sought-after asset, and recently GateHub suffered a theft of XRP worth more than $10 million.
Following the news, XRP traded at $0.42, moving down 10% in the past day after all assets sank following a Bitcoin (BTC) correction. ADA, a more obscure coin that sees stagnant trading, hovering around $0.09 with a 10% loss in the past day.