Deribit losses $28 million in an attack

Bitcoin options exchange Deribit lost $28 million in an attack that took place a few hours ago.

Deribit, the leading Bitcoin options exchange in the world, announced a few hours ago that it had suffered an exploit.

The exchange revealed that its hot wallet was hacked, and the attacker(s) stole $28 million from its wallet. 

Deribit hot wallet compromised, but client funds are safe and loss is covered by company reserves

Our hot wallet was hacked for USD 28m earlier this evening just before midnight UTC on 1 November 2022.

— Deribit (@DeribitExchange) November 2, 2022

Deribit informed its users that while its wallet was compromised, client funds are safe, and the loss is covered by company reserves. The crypto exchange said;

“Client assets, Fireblocks or any of the cold storage addresses are not affected. It’s company procedure to keep 99% of our user funds in cold storage to limit the impact of these types of events. The hack is isolated & quarantined to our BTC, ETH and USDC hot wallets.”

Deribit assures its users that they are performing ongoing security checks. The security checks mean that Deribit had to halt withdrawals, including third-party custodians Copper Clearloop and Cobo, until they are confident all is safe to re-open.

Deposits already sent will still be processed, and after the required number of confirmations, they will be credited to accounts, the team added. 

Furthermore, Deribit said they had raised the minimum number of confirmations for the moment, causing a delay in crediting funds. Hence, until they open wallets again, the team urged its users not to send new deposits.

The crypto exchange also added that the insurance fund would not be impacted as the loss would be paid by company reserves. Deribit remains in a financially sound position, and ongoing operations will not be impacted, the team assured its users.

This latest exploit comes after security firm Peckshield revealed a few hours ago that losses from hacks in the cryptocurrency space had reached $3 billion year-to-date.

The report revealed that October is the month with the highest number of exploits in the crypto space, with 53 protocols losing funds to hackers.