Cryptopia

The Cryptopia hack, unfolding on January 14, 2019, cast a long shadow over the New Zealand-based cryptocurrency exchange, once a bustling hub for trading mainstream and obscure coins. At approximately 6:30 p.m., staff detected suspicious activity in the hot wallet, signaling a private key compromise, as co-founder Rob Dawson later recounted. The breach, announced via Twitter the next day after an abrupt “unscheduled maintenance” shutdown, saw hackers siphon off roughly 9.4% of Cryptopia’s holdings, totaling $23 million in Ethereum and ERC20 tokens, including Dentacoin and Golem, per Elementus and CoinTelegraph. Strikingly, the attack persisted for two weeks, with an additional 1675 ETH, worth $175000, pilfered from 17000 wallets by January 29, as hackers retained control over private keys, per Hacken.

The method remained elusive, though experts speculated phishing or code vulnerabilities, as noted by web3author. Cryptopia, with 1.4 million users and $1 million daily volume, froze operations, notifying the New Zealand Police and High Tech Crimes Unit, who locked down its Christchurch office for investigation, per Stuff. Liquidation followed in May 2019 under Grant Thornton, as the exchange’s pooled wallet structure complicated asset reconciliation, leaving users in limbo for years. By December 2024, over 10000 verified account holders received $400 million in Bitcoin and Dogecoin distributions, per Wikipedia. Social media erupted with user frustration, some like @CredibleCrypto mourning lost funds, while a former developer, @notsofast, alleged an inside job by Intranel, though unverified, per cryptonews.net. In 2019’s regulatory haze, no funds were recovered, and no culprits charged, amplifying calls for multi-signature wallets, bug bounty programs, and stringent cybersecurity standards to fortify the crypto landscape