Lykke, a UK-based crypto exchange, announced that it suspended trading on June 6 due to “unauthorized access” to its platform.
The suspension comes two days after the exchange's security breach, as first reported by web researcher SomaXBT. MetaMask developer and crypto defense expert Taylor Monahan also states that the exchange suffered a loss of $ 22 million from suspicious outflows.
Lykke, which recorded $2.5 million in cumulative volume last month, is currently preventing its users from withdrawing their assets from the platform. A few users reported missing account balances, indicating a potential hack.
Approximately half of the stolen amount is in Bitcoin, and the rest consists of Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash, according to onchain data. The data also reveals that ETH withdrawn from the exchange was immediately converted into the DAI stablecoin issued by MakerDAO.
At the same time, the seized Bitcoin was distributed to multiple wallets; This is a typical strategy used by hackers to hide the transaction trail during money laundering.
The stock market remained largely silent about the incident. On June 6, Lykke CEO Richard Olsen apologized for the platform's downtime in an email to customers.
“We are still investigating the causes of this security incident,” Olsen said in the email. He reassured customers that their funds were safe and said “Lykke is a diversified business with strong capital reserves.”
The exchange's website currently displays a message stating that the platform is “under maintenance following security” and “will not be active until further notice.”
This is the second crypto exchange attack in the last two weeks, following the theft of $320 million from the DMM Bitcoin platform on May 31.
*This is not investment advice.