Canadian Crypto Exchange Stops Withdrawals, Trading After Security Breach

Canadian crypto exchange Catalyx has halted withdrawals and halted all trading activity on its platform following the discovery of a “security breach” it suspected to be its own employees.

“Management suspects that this security breach, which may involve an employee, has resulted in the loss of a portion of the crypto assets that the company holds on behalf of its clients,” Caltyx wrote in a December 28 statement.

Catalyx did not say how many of its crypto assets were lost in the breach.

Due to the outage, all crypto and fiat currency withdrawals from the platform and all trading activities on the platform have been temporarily suspended.

On December 21, the Alberta Securities Commission ordered the platform to cease all trading activities and began an investigation into the exchange related to the security breach.

The crypto exchange said it is investigating the losses and has hired consulting firm Deloitte to help it get to the bottom of the problem.

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The official Catalyx website currently carries a warning banner, advising users that the platform is suffering from “technical issues” and will notify users when normal operations are restored.

The Calgary-based exchange was founded in 2018 by current CEO Jay Ho Lee. The exchange is registered with Canada's national financial intelligence agency, FINTRAC.

In the midst of a broad bull market in May 2021, the exchange boasted $28 million in monthly trading volume, a 73% month-over-month increase over the period.

Current public information about the reserve or transaction volume is not available on any crypto data aggregators.

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