The crypto sector, which is thriving in several parts of the world, has been hit by multiple hacking and fraud attacks this year. Even a few days before the end of the industrially uncertain 2022, news and warnings surrounding crypto crime have made headlines. This week the private API keys of around 1,00,000 crypto users were leaked to public domains. The victims were all users of 3Commas, an Estonia-based crypto trading service. The incident added to the already troubled crypto sector, which saw its valuation drastically drop to a yearly low of $795 billion.
3Commas allows users to set up an automated feature that allows bots to place trades on third-party exchanges such as binance, coin baseand KuCoin on behalf of the users.
An anonymous hacker has been at work since October, 3Commas has confirmed allegedly resulted in loss of user funds of up to US$12 million (approximately Rs.100 billion) through unauthorized transactions. These transactions were processed through 3Commas on exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase.
The company previously investigated whether these unverified transactions were triggered by phishing attacks.
1. Statement of 3Commas:
We saw the hacker’s message and can confirm that the data in the files is true. As an immediate action, we requested that Binance, Kucoin, and other supported exchanges revoke all keys associated with 3Commas.
— Yuriy Sorokin (@YS_3Commas) December 28, 2022
Several members of the crypto community including the CEO of Binance Changpeng Zhaoshared awareness and safety suggestions for others.
I’m pretty sure there are widespread API key leaks from 3Commas. If you have ever entered an API key into 3Commas (from any exchange), please deactivate it immediately.
Stay #SAFU.
— CZ :large_orange_diamond: Binance (@cz_binance) December 28, 2022
My clear recommendation for everyone @3commas_io Leak victims should hire a lawyer as soon as possible
Link to the leak belowhttps://t.co/QRstmpwumF
The best-documented lawsuits would win and you stand a chance of compensation
— Dyma Budorin :flag-ua: (@buda_kyiv) December 28, 2022
The incident is happening in the background crypto crime is gaining momentum worldwide.
US’ Federal Criminal Police Office (FBI) has warned crypto investors there about a new technique of ongoing scams — dubbed “pig slaughter.” In these cases, scammers trick potential victims into postponing their investments cryptocurrency. Once hers digital wallet ‘Fat’, these scammers hack and steal the funds.
“Be very careful when you go on social media and dating apps and someone starts to develop a relationship with you and wants you to start investing. Don’t get slaughtered”, Bitcoin.com quoted Frank Fisher, a public affairs specialist with the FBI’s Albuquerque branch, said.
Already in November the authorities in the USA allegedly claimed to have identified and seized seven domain names used in the pig slaughter scam.
In a recent report chain analysis claims that the month of October was the worst in terms of crypto-related crimes. The crypto sector lost over US$718 million (approximately Rs.5,890 crore) due to such crimes.
Back-to-back hack attacks on the Digital assets sector contributed greatly to the market reaching its current low valuation of US$795 billion (around Rs. 65,87,830 crore).
glass node, has claimed in its latest report that most Bitcoin holders have moved their holdings to self-custodial crypto wallets. Glassnode has estimated that around 550,000 Bitcoin worth US$9.2 billion (about Rs.76,760 billion) have left crypto exchanges.
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