Crypto Exchange CoinEx Suspected of Being Hacked in $27 Million Outflow

Abnormal transactions raise concerns

Crypto exchange CoinEx experienced a significant outflow of funds to an unknown address on September 12, leading security experts to suspect a possible hack. According to blockchain security platform Cyvers Alerts, the estimated losses from the incident are around $27 million.

Suspicious transactions detected

CoinEx's AI-powered model detected suspicious transactions related to the exchange just two hours ago. The potentially stolen funds include $18.12 million worth of Ether (ETH), $8.5 million of Tron, and $291,000 in Polygon.

Possible causes

Security experts propose several potential causes for the incident, including access control violations, private key leakage, rug pulling, or even an insider job.

The timeline of the incident

At approximately 1:21 p.m. UTC on September 12, a known CoinEx hot wallet transferred around 4,947 Ether (ETH) to an Ethereum account that had no prior transaction history. After this initial transfer, the hot wallet continued to send large amounts of various tokens to the same address, including 408,741 DAI stablecoin, 2.7 million Graph (GRT) tokens, and 29,158 Uniswap (UNI) tokens.

Industry experts express concern

Leading blockchain security firm PeckShield has flagged the outflow of funds as suspicious, while CryptoQuant's head of research, Julio Moreno, described the behavior of the CoinEx wallet as "strange." Furthermore, Moreno noted that CoinEx's Ether reserves are now essentially zero.

CoinEx remains silent

As of now, CoinEx has not issued a public statement regarding the incident. More updates will be provided as additional information becomes available.

This story is still developing

Stay tuned for further updates on this developing story as new information emerges.