If the day of January 17, 2022 was rather calm in the ecosystem of cryptocurrencies, it was on the other hand animated on the side of Crypto.com (CRO). Indeed, the exchange platform based in Hong Kong had to suspend all withdrawals for a few hours. The reason ? Suspicious transactions reported by some users and a confirmation of one of them by Billy Markus, the co-founder of Dogecoin (DOGE).
Crypto.com suspended withdrawals for a few hours this Monday, January 17
Crypto.com had to resolve to suspend all withdrawals for several hours. It was in a tweet published at 5:44 a.m. Paris time that the platform reported suspicious activity on the account of a “small number” of users. As a result, Crypto.com played it safe and decided to suspend all withdrawals altogether.
We have a small number of users reporting suspicious activity on their accounts.
We will be suspending withdrawals shortly as our team is investigating. All funds are safe.
— Crypto.com (@cryptocom) January 17, 2022
The suspension allowed the platform’s technical team to carry out its investigation in order to find out whether, on the one hand, there really were suspicious withdrawals and, on the other hand, where these withdrawals or attempted withdrawals came from.
Crypto.com was also helped by Billy Markus, aka Shibetoshi Nakamoto on Twitter, the co-founder of Dogecoin (DOGE). The latter has in fact spotted suspicious activity on one of the Ethereum (ETH) wallets of the trading platform.
I see strange activity on one of the Ethereum hot wallets at https://t.co/AbuAAkBxG1 – https://t.co/7l7MgCLnoG
This is a pattern, received wallets look like this https://t.co/2Gf48D3fqm, many of the same transactions to a new wallet between 2 and 5 ETH, funds are not moved afterwards. https://t.co/tbGJ5RqpXS
—Shibetoshi Nakamoto (@BillyM2k) January 17, 2022
👉 Read – Crypto.com (CRO) strengthens its insurance policy and now protects $750 million worth of cryptocurrencies
Withdrawals allowed again a few hours later on Crypto.com (CRO)
More than seven hours after the temporary suspension of withdrawals, Crypto.com disconnected all of its users. They were asked to reconnect both on the website and on the application, but also to redefine their two-factor authentication (2FA).
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Earlier today, a small number of users were victims of unauthorized activity in their accounts. All funds are safe.In an abundance of caution, the security of all accounts is tightened, requiring users to:
-Log back into their App & Exchange accounts
-Reset their 2FA— Crypto.com (@cryptocom) January 17, 2022
It was finally at the end of the afternoon that withdrawals from the platform were again authorized, after eleven hours of interruption. In the end, some users report that their ETHs were stolen. The loss would amount to 15 million dollars:
The @cryptocom the loss is around $15 million with at least 4.6,000 ETH and half of it is currently washed through @TornadoCash https://t.co/PUl6IrB3cp https://t.co/6SVKvk8PLf pic.twitter.com/XN9nmT857j
— PeckShield Inc. (@peckshield) January 18, 2022
Crypto.com was content to mention simple suspicious activity, specifying that the funds on the platform were secure.
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Bad publicity for Crypto.com (CRO)?
Could this misadventure be detrimental to Crypto.com? If it’s a short-term possibility, we don’t think this will be the case in the long term. Indeed, the last few months have been very prosperous for the Hong Kong-based platform.
First of all, Crypto.com has signed many partnership contracts, such as with the NBA franchise of the Philadelphia Sixters or the organizer of the Formula 1 championship. the $700 million contract with the Staples Center in Los Angeles which remains, to this day, the most beautiful “catch” of the trading platform.
In any case, this day proved that even the largest exchanges were not infallible to risk. An example that proves that the adage ” not your keys, not your coins (it’s not your money if you don’t have the keys) remains relevant.
👉 Read – Crypto.com signs $700 million partnership with Staples Center in Los Angeles
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Formerly a lawyer specializing in personal data law, I very quickly became interested in Bitcoin, blockchain and their legal implications, particularly taxation. I am now an independent consultant in the field of cryptocurrencies and blockchain and am based in Switzerland.
Benjamin Allouche
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