US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Open August 11th BitMart investigation into hacking from December 2021 by BitMart operators Bachi.Tech and Spread Technologies LLC. — Refused to disclose information requested by the FTC.
A BitMart representative did not respond to a request for comment at the time of writing.
Research background
The FTC has asked BitMart operators for information about how they approached users during the December 2021 attack, according to a Bloomberg News report. The FTC wanted to determine whether companies responded to user complaints and what they said regarding the security of user assets.
However, the operator refused to provide the information, citing that the request was too broad and that some of the data was stored overseas, leading to an FTC investigation. The regulator also said the probe would look into compliance with other federal laws by BitMart operators and seek information about the December 2021 hack.
December 2021 hack
BitMart was hacked on December 4, 2021, resulting in a loss of between $150 million and $196 million. The exchange said it lost $150 million in funds when it announced the hack. However, a data analytics firm estimates the loss at $196 million.
BitMart explained that hackers stole the private keys of the exchange’s $ETH and $BSC hot wallets. From his $ETH wallet, $100 million was stolen, and another $96 million from his $BSC wallet, according to a data analytics firm. BitMart has not disclosed the exact amount stolen from the wallet.
The attackers stole the total amount in the form of 20 different crypto assets including Binance Coin, Safemoon and Shiba Inu. The stolen coins were then sent to a decentralized exchange and converted into Ethereum. Finally, they washed them through the Tornado cache of crypto-mixers.
The BitMart hack was the second largest security breach of 2021.
