Lykke crypto exchange acknowledges hacking after it stops withdrawing money

According to a June 10 social media announcement, the Lykke cryptocurrency exchange has stopped withdrawing funds after suffering an exploit on June 4. The exchange said users' funds are “secure and will be returned”.

According to the post, both Lykke UK and Lykke Corp AG were affected by the attack.

In another post on the same topic, the exchange said it was suspended “as a precautionary measure.”

Lykke in 2010 It is a centralized cryptocurrency exchange launched in 2015 and based in Switzerland. On its website, it advertises itself as “no fees” and claims to be from a “reputable forex broker”.

Blockchain security researcher SomaXBT discovered the attack on June 9 and accused the group of trying to hide the security breach, saying, “@lykke CTX was exploited and lost $19.5 million worth of crypto assets, but the group is still trying to hide this fact.” In response to their own post, SomaXBT provided a screenshot of a reported Discord message from the group. The message is that the exchange is “performing an unscheduled full system maintenance!” He said.

On June 8, a Like user complained to X about the exchange not working and rumors of hacking.

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In a June 10 post, the group acknowledged the attack and apologized to affected users. “We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this attack has caused to all customers and partners,” he said. The group said the exchange has “strong capital reserves and a diversified portfolio” to withstand any potential losses from an attack, keeping customers' funds “safe”.

The exchange also said it had obtained the attacker's IP address, which it used for criminal investigations, and had hired a cyber security team to “intercept and recover the stolen assets.” According to the group's estimates, more than $22 million was lost in the attack.

Blockchain researchers continue to discover unproven exploits on centralized exchanges. On April 19, on-chain ZackXBT announced that the rain exchange had been hacked for $14.1 million two weeks earlier. Rain later admitted to the attack, saying no customer money was lost because he “plugged the hole in his own stock.”

Related: Japanese exchange DMM loses $305M in Bitcoin in private key hack