BingX exchange hit by $26 million hack, attacker exchanges stolen funds for Ethereum, BNB and POL

• BingX exchange loses $26.68 million in cryptocurrencies due to hack on hot wallet.
• The stolen funds were exchanged for Ethereum, Binance Coin and Polygon’s POL token.
• If the attacker transfers the stolen assets to exchanges, this could increase selling pressure and negatively affect prices.

Cryptocurrency exchange BingX said on Friday it suffered a hack, an attack that resulted in “minimal” losses, which PeckShield researchers estimate at $26.68 million. The attacker exchanged the stolen altcoins for Ethereum (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB) and Polygon (POL) tokens, according to on-chain data.

Ethereum, BNB and POL are worth over $26 million in movement

The BingX exchange made an official announcement on X, acknowledging the hack on the platform’s hot wallets. A warm wallet is a wallet address used to store cryptocurrency and is connected to the internet, making it vulnerable to hacks.

The official announcement states that at 20:00 GMT on Thursday, the team detected what it called “anomalous access” to the exchange’s hot wallet. This was suspected as a malicious attack by a hacker and the platform initiated an emergency response procedure. The exchange halted withdrawals and transfers as part of its response.

The exchange has extended its pause on withdrawals for 24 hours, according to X’s tweet.

Security researchers at PeckShield identified the chain trail of the hacker’s transfers and shared details of the total value of the tokens stolen in the hack.

Hack BingX

The stolen funds were converted into ETH, POL and BNB, the data shows, leading to a cause for concern for holders of these coins. If the hacker transfers the stolen crypto to exchanges, it could lead to a sell-off and possibly a negative impact on the prices of these three tokens.

BingX plans to reimburse users affected by the hack with their own capital

Vivien Lin, Chief Product Officer at BingX, told FXStreet that all users affected by the hack will be fully covered from the platform’s funds:

Total loss is minimal and manageable. This incident will not affect our business operations. Trading services continue as usual. Withdrawals and deposits are temporarily delayed and are expected to be restored within 24 hours.

At the time of writing, withdrawals are halted and various security intelligence platforms continue to speculate on the total value of cryptoassets lost.

As for the main hack-related tokens, all three seem to be shrugging off the news: Ethereum gains more than 3% on Friday, while Binance Coin and Polygon prices rise 0.8% and 2% respectively.