Theft of $160M Occurred at Cryptocurrency Market Creator Wintermute

• by Artem
• |
• September 21, 2022
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• Cryptocurrency News

Evgeny Gaevoy, the founder and CEO of Wintermute, a cryptocurrency market maker in the UK, disclosed that the firm was the most recent victim of cyberattacks targeting decentralized finance (DeFi), losing almost $160 million. Etherscan reports that “Wintermute exploiter” received transfers of over 70 different tokens, including $61,350,986 in USD Coin (USDC), 671 Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC), equivalent to around $13,030,061, and $29,461,533 Tether (USDT). It indicates that USDC has the highest token amount.

The over-the-counter and centralized financing operations remained unaffected as the hacker(s) withdrew money from the company’s DeFi activities. Gaevoy emphasized that consumers’ cash is secure by claiming that the market maker is solvent and still has twice as much equity as was taken. An artificial market maker called Wintermute deals in digital assets like cryptocurrencies. The Financial Conduct Authority oversees the group based in Cheshire and has a UK corporate registration. Companies House reveals that Evgeny Gaevoy is listed as a Director with “more than 25 percent, but not more than 50 percent” shares.

According to Ajay Dhingra, smart exchange Unizen’s research and analytics head, “The nature of the exploit suggests that Wintermute’s hot wallet was compromised.” Dhingra said, “The attacker cleverly manipulated the bug in the smart contract.” The Dutchman Gaevoy stated that the breach might be considered a white-hat hack in the brief tweet conversation. The perpetrator could get in touch with Wintermute and disclose the flaws they found to prevent future attacks.

White hat hacks are frequent in the crypto world. Hacker bounties are occasionally rewarded with cash or jobs by exchanges, market makers, and businesses. The Wintermute Exploiter’s public Ether (ETH) address has received spam from cryptocurrency enthusiasts with messages like “plz give. I’m very poor. Even $5k would be amazing.” Wintermute has been contacted about the matter, but no answer has yet been received.