FTX Investigating A Possible $473 Million Hack

FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange that declared bankruptcy on Friday, said Saturday that it is investigating whether crypto assets were stolen and has taken all of its digital assets offline.

iexclusivenews reports that a crypto risk management firm, the assets could be worth more than $400 million, according to Elliptic.

FTX general counsel Ryne Miller said in a tweet early Saturday that the company “took precautionary measures” and moved all of its digital assets to cold storage, which means the crypto wallet is no longer connected to the internet.

This comes after the company announced on Friday that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Although the theft is unconfirmed, $473 million in crypto assets were allegedly stolen from FTX during the week that brought down crypto behemoth Elliptic.

The process was “expedited” Friday evening “to mitigate damage upon observing unauthorized transactions,” Miller said in a tweet.

Miller tweeted late Friday that FTX is “investigating abnormalities” regarding wallet movements “related to consolidation of FTX balances across exchanges.”

The facts are still unclear and the company will share more information as soon as possible, he added.

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However, iexclusivenews Nigeria reports that stablecoins and other missing tokens are being quickly converted to ether. The second-largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, on decentralized exchanges.

According to Elliptic, this is a common technique used by hackers to keep their funds from being seized.

FTX, until recently one of the most powerful players in the crypto industry, is in rapid decline. Sam Bankman-Fried, its 30-year-old founder and CEO, has resigned, and he has lost his $16 billion fortune in less than a week.

Meanwhile, FTX stated in its bankruptcy filing that its estimated liabilities and assets range from $10 billion to $50 billion.

“I’m really sorry, again, that we ended up here,” Bankman-Fried wrote in a Twitter thread Friday. “Hopefully things can find a way to recover.”