BingX launches ‘ShieldX’ wallet firewall months after $52M hack

Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange BingX says it is launching a new initiative called “ShieldX” after falling victim to a hot wallet exploit that stole $52 million from the company in September.

In an Oct. 24 statement, the exchange said ShieldX will introduce an “enhanced wallet firewall” to provide greater protection against threat actors and protect users' assets on the platform.

In addition, BingX said it has partnered with several unnamed security firms to implement “round-the-clock” monitoring and threat detection to further protect against potential future exploits.

“The launch of ShieldX is an important step in proactively strengthening our platform's defenses,” said Vivian Lin, Chief Product Officer of BingX.

The exchange was the victim of an attack on September 20, when hackers targeted BingX's hot wallets and took out approximately $52 million worth of assets with various blockchains, including Ethereum, BNB Chain, Base and Optimism.

BingX shared that it has resumed normal operations after halting withdrawals for various assets including Tether (USDT), Circle's USD Coin (USDC), Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) in response to last month's hack.

At the time, Lin downplayed the incident, describing the hack as only a “minor” breach and confirming that all affected funds would be “fully covered” by BingX Capital, although a later investigation revealed that the amount stolen was more than “minor”. “

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BingX sparked controversy in April after Telegram administrators admitted the exchange had allowed Iranian users to evade sanctions.

At the time, the exchange openly displayed the Iranian version of its website, and officials issued a statement in Farsi on the exchange's official Telegram group.

“Bing X exchange has no problem with Iranian users, and can be verified with a national card,” read the translation of one statement.

The exchange allows exchange of Iranian Rial and Tether on the platform, which are prohibited by the United States Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) regulations.

In the year Founded in 2018, BingX facilitates more than $300 million in daily transactions, making it one of the top 20 crypto exchanges in the world, according to CoinMarketCap data.

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