KuCoin hack now estimated at $280 million

Last Updated on 30 September 2020 by CryptoTips.eu


Jeroen Kok

Jeroen is one of the lead copywriters on Cryptotips.eu and discusses all recent events in the crypto market. This includes news updates, but also price analyzes and more. He developed his passion for cryptocurrency during the bull run in 2017. He has learned a lot since then. The combination of cryptocurrency and creative writing is perfect for Jeroen and an excellent way to share his knowledge with a wide audience. Find me on LinkedIn / [email protected]

With the industry of Bitcoins and all things DeFi keen on cleaning up its reputation, crypto enthusiasts worldwide are scrambling to seek where the stolen KuCoin funds are being moved to as the alleged hacker finds it more and more difficult to cash out.

The old saga of a sort of Robin Hood who steals from the rich and hands it out to the poor is nothing but a fairy tale in this KuCoin matter, as nearly everyone who is anyone knows that crypto cannot afford to run headlines about hacks and thefts forever. From a past built on the Mt. Gox hack over the Silk Road’s drug dealing website, it is time for Satoshi Nakamoto’s invention to start gaining the trust of Wall Street.

Just as it had done so this year and more and more classic investors started pouring funds into Bitcoin, the wild swings of DeFi food coins and a recent massive hack are ready to erase that trust once again.

Tipping point

Therefore, it is good to see that the crypto world is coming together to chase out the hacker and track all of his dealings. The criminal is finding it harder to nearly impossible to get rid of his stolen funds as exchanges and crypto enthusiasts work together to flush him out.

Meanwhile uncertainty rises as to the size of the loot, with Larry Cermak the Director of Research at the Block Crypto stating that he estimates it to be much bigger. Larry said:

So I did some accounting of the Kucoin hack based on the wallets very likely associated and based on my estimation, there was nearly $280 million of assets stolen, not $150M.

This would make it the third-largest hack in history and seven times larger than the Binance hack last year.

Although everyone is scrambling to make up for the losses and is hoping that the blow to crypto’s reputation can be limited, Larry is not so sure, saying:

It’s quite odd to me that KuCoin is confident they can cover these amounts with the insurance fund. My opinion is that there is almost no chance this is recoverable.