Cryptopia, the New Zealand-based cryptocurrency exchange was hacked in last month, creating a lot of buzz in the market. After being silent on the matter, the platform has finally opened about the loss it has incurred.
In a series of updates via Twitter on Wednesday, the firm provided an update over the total loss of assets incurred by the platform in the cyber-attack, saying:
“We are continuing to work on assessing the impact incurred as a result of the hack in January. Currently, we have calculated that worst case 9.4% of our total holdings was stolen.”
Though, the amount in monetary terms wasn’t disclosed.
The exchange went offline on Jan. 15, suggesting that it suffered a “security breach which resulted in significant losses.” While cryptopia did not really provide any specific information at the time, as the New Zealand Police was investigating over the hack. It is just some days ago that the platform received a thumbs up from the New Zealand Police to resume their operation.
A blockchain data analytics firm estimated that as much as $16 million in ether and ERC-20 tokens could have been lost. Notably the hackers have control over Cryptopia even after the police had been brought in and reportedly stole an additional 1,675 ether from 17,000 wallets, an amount worth about $181,000 at the time.
One of the Tweets from Wednesday stated it is “securing each wallet individually” to ensure it is “fully secure” when resuming trading.
Update: We are securing each wallet individually to ensure the exchange is fully secure when we resume trading.
We have more updates to come today, please keep an eye on our page.— Cryptopia Exchange (@Cryptopia_NZ) February 27, 2019
Cryptopia further warned:
“As a result of the new wallets please immediately refrain from depositing funds into old Cryptopia addresses. We have more updates to come tomorrow, keep an eye on our page.”
The New Zealand Police states at the time that they expected to complete the inspection of Cryptopia’s premises by mid-month. On Feb 14, Cryptopia confirmed in a tweet that the police had given them access back to its building, while the investigation was continuing.
Update: The police have now given us access back to our building, while they continue their investigations. Our staff are working relentlessly to evaluate the funds that were stolen.
— Cryptopia Exchange (@Cryptopia_NZ) February 14, 2019
Detective inspector Greg Murton of the New Zealand Police said at the time that the case is “progressing well and advancing on several fronts,” adding:
“The focus is on identifying those behind this offending and retrieving the stolen cryptocurrency. This investigation is expected to take a considerable amount of time to resolve due to the complexity of the cyber environment.”
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