Did Pyongyang bag $70M? Onchain sleuths are claiming a state-sponsored North Korea hacker group is behind the Phemex crypto hack.
Several blockchain security analysts have claimed that North Korean hackers may be behind the multi-million dollar hack of the Phemex crypto exchange.
The Singapore-based exchange was exploited on Thursday (January 23), with losses reported at more than $70 million across various cryptocurrencies.
Hello all, we are currently carefully testing our system to reprise withdrawals as soon as possible. Due to the sophistication of the threat actor we cannot rush this stage. The estimated timeline to reprise full operations is within 24h, thank you for your support. All users…
— Federico0x @Phemex (@Federico0x) January 23, 2025
Phemex Quickly Halted Withdrawals But Couldn’t Stop Another $40 Million Being Drained By The Hackers
Phemex quickly halted withdrawals on Thursday after being alerted to suspicious activity from several blockchain security firms. When withdrawals were suspended, roughly $30 million had been drained.
However, even with the exchange aware of the attack, the heist continued with another $40 million worth of tokens stolen.
Federico Variola, CEO of Phemex, addressed the situation on X. He said, “As we look into a report on one of our hot wallets rest assured our cold wallets remain safe and can be checked by everyone here, will post more updates shortly.”
The Singapore-based exchange still holds around $1.8 billion worth of crypto assets across its multiple wallets. The bulk of that amount is in its exchange token, PT, which accounts for $1.1 billion of its holdings.
Its next two largest holdings are $355 million worth of Bitcoin and $209 million worth of USDT. The exchange, which ranks 55th by volumes and 37th on CoinGecko’s trust score, said it is “working on a compensation plan” for anyone impacted by the hack.
Here is the compiled total $69.1M loss of #Phemex hack in multiple chains. https://t.co/QvB6NuTGE2
— PeckShield Inc. (@peckshield) January 24, 2025
Crypto Investigator Believes North Korea Are Behind The Phemex Hack
SomaXBT, an anonymous crypto-threats investigator, said that a group affiliated with or based in North Korea is likely behind the attack.
“The attack vector is similar to their (North Korean hackers) attacks,” the anon investigator said, before adding, “I never saw their activity on other chains.”
The main wallet associated with the attack, beginning 0x5b34, saw at least $44 million flow through it. It also had addresses for draining assets on Avalanche, Binance Smart Chain, Polkadot, Solana, and Tron.
According to various blockchain explorers, at least $16 million worth of SOL, $12 million in XRP, and $5 million in Bitcoin were stolen.
Phemex cryptocurrency exchange hacked for over $70 million.
Hot wallets were drained first for about $30 million and the hack continued after withdrawals were frozen.
Everything I see here leads to North Korea
News (clarification) pending @Phemex_official pic.twitter.com/YJ6dQ5ZdHb
— Dominic Alvieri (@AlvieriD) January 24, 2025
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