Japan’s leading cryptocurrency exchange has been hacked by cyber intruders, with an estimated $ 100m (£ 73m) estimated to have been stolen.
The company has announced that some of its digital wallets have been “compromised.”
This is the second major cryptocurrency theft to take place in recent weeks.
The Company Apologizes
Last week, the Poly Network digital token platform was at the center of one of the largest crypto hacks involving $ 600m.
“We are sorry to announce that #LiquidGlobal warm wallets were compromised, we are moving assets into the cold wallet,” the company said on Twitter.
Digital wallets called ‘warm’ or ‘hot’ are usually online and are designed to allow users to access their cryptocurrencies easily, while ‘cold’ wallets are offline and hard to access and are therefore often more secure.
What Is Stolen?
Blockchain analytics company Elliptic said its analysis showed that about $ 97m had been taken from the platform, with Bitcoin and Ethereum tokens being major currencies hacked.
Liquid said it was following the flow of stolen coins and working with other exchanges to seize and return the hacked cryptos.
Founded in 2014, Liquid operates in more than 100 countries and serves millions of customers worldwide.
It is one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges on daily trading volumes, according to CoinMarketCap data.
Other Recent Crypto Hack
Last week, $ 600m was stolen from the blockchain Poly Network site after a criminal used a vulnerability to get access to the system.
“The amount of money you have broken into is one of the biggest in the history of decentralized finance,” Poly Network said.
Since then the cyber hacker, who runs under the name of Mr White Hat, has returned $ 427m worth of property.
Liquid is not the only Japanese cryptocurrency platform to be hit by a huge heist.
In 2014, Tokyo-based exchange MtGox collapsed after almost half a billion dollars of bitcoin went missing, while Coincheck was hacked in a $530m heist in 2018.
