Exmo

On December 21, 2020, EXMO, a UK-based cryptocurrency exchange popular in Ukraine and Russia, faced a significant security breach that compromised 6% of its total assets, valued at approximately $10.5 million, as reported by The Block. Detected at 2:27:02 UTC, the hack targeted hot wallets, siphoning off 306.98 BTC, 1882.60 BCH, 867 ETH, 476521 XRP, 50000 USDT, and ZEC, with funds funneled to addresses like 1A4PXZE5j8v7UuapYckq6fSegmY5i8uUyq for BTC, per Merkle Science. Likely executed by the North Korean Lazarus Group, as noted by The Block, the attackers exploited private key access, possibly gained days earlier, through methods undisclosed by EXMO, though hot wallet vulnerabilities were cited, per Cointelegraph. EXMO halted withdrawals and deposits, notified London’s Metropolitan Police, and engaged Chainalysis, Crystal, and CipherTrace, labeling the hacker’s wallet ‘EXMOHACKEDCUSTOMER’ as ‘Criminal’ with a risk score of 10. Funds traced to Poloniex, which failed to block transactions due to an anonymous account, saw $1 million in XRP and $2.8 million in ZEC unrecovered, per Cointelegraph. Social media buzzed with user frustration, with @CryptoWhale on Twitter questioning EXMO’s security, while Reddit’s u/BlockHodler praised the exchange’s transparency. EXMO covered user losses, integrated Ledger Vault for custody, implemented hardware security modules, and revamped its security team, per EXMO’s blog. Despite no fund recovery in 2020’s regulatory gaps, the incident, one of 12 major hacks that year per CipherTrace, spurred calls for multi-signature wallets, reduced hot wallet exposure, and robust cybersecurity frameworks to fortify the crypto ecosystem.