More than $44 million in cryptocurrency stolen from Singaporean platform BingX

Singaporean crypto platform BingX said Friday that more than $44 million was stolen from their platform in a cyberattack. 

Blockchain security firms began seeing millions flow out of the platform Thursday night before the company posted a message on social media about a shutdown related to “wallet maintenance.” The company quickly released a longer statement saying the disruption was triggered after the company “detected abnormal network access, potentially indicating a hacker attack on BingX's hot wallet.” 

“We immediately implemented emergency measures, including urgent transfer of assets and a temporary suspension of withdrawals. There has been minor asset loss, but the amount is small and is currently being calculated,” they said. 

They added that only a “small amount” of funds are kept directly on the platform to meet withdrawal demands. Withdrawals were paused in light of the attack. 

The company later released a more complete audit with help from blockchain security firm SlowMist, which said so far they have tracked about $44.7 million in losses. Other companies said the losses could be as high as $48 million but BingX admitted they are still calculating how much was taken. 

BingX chief product officer Vivien Lin posted a statement online and released an audio comment through social media platform X. In addition to SlowMist, the platform is working with Chainalysis to track the movement of the stolen funds, Lin said. 

“While the loss is still under calculation, we confirm the following: BingX will fully compensate for the loss with our own capital. The total loss is minimal and manageable,” she said. 

“This incident will not affect our ongoing business operations. Trading services continue as usual. Withdrawals and deposits are temporarily delayed and are expected to be restored within 24 hours at the latest.”

She claimed they have been able to “freeze $10 million” as part of their recovery efforts but the company did not respond to requests for comment about what exactly that means. As of Friday afternoon, Lin said they are gradually restoring withdrawal services. 

Lin said they plan to do another audio question-and-answer session at a later date once the total losses are confirmed and there is more information about the incident. 

Law enforcement agencies have stepped up their efforts to protect cryptocurrency users. On Thursday the Justice Department announced that it arrested two people this week for their role in stealing more than $230 million from a cryptocurrency owner in Washington, D.C. 

The attack on BingX comes as several Asia-based crypto platforms have dealt with financially-damaging security incidents this year. Indonesia’s largest crypto platform saw $20 million taken last week while another Singaporean crypto platform, Penpie, reported an incident last week where $27 million was stolen. 

Platforms in India and Japan lost more than $230 million and $300 million respectively in attacks earlier this year.