Share this article
'FTX Has Been Hacked': Crypto Disaster Worsens as Exchange Sees Mysterious Outflows Exceeding $600M
FTX officials appeared to confirm rumors of a hack on Telegram, instructing users to delete FTX apps and avoid its website.
Updated Jan 10, 2025, 7:51 p.m. Published Nov 12, 2022, 4:20 a.m.
What to know:
- Over $600 million vanished from FTX's crypto wallets hours after bankruptcy, forcing the troubled exchange to warn users about potential malware.
- The late-night incident sparked debate over whether it was an external hack or an inside job, as company officials rushed to secure remaining assets.
The collapse of FTX, already one of the most spectacular disasters in financial history, worsened as hundreds of millions of dollars were drained from the cryptocurrency exchange hours after it filed for bankruptcy.
More than $600 million was siphoned from FTX's crypto wallets late Friday. Soon after, FTX stated in its official Telegram channel that it had been compromised, instructing users not to install any new upgrades and to delete all FTX apps.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
"FTX has been hacked. FTX apps are malware. Delete them. Chat is open. Don't go on FTX site as it might download Trojans," wrote an account administrator in the FTX Support Telegram chat. The message was pinned by FTX General Counsel Ryne Miller.
Read more: FTX CEO John Ray Confirms Late-Night Hack, Says Company Is Working With Law Enforcement
Hours later, Miller disclosed in a tweet that FTX US and FTX.com had been moving all their digital assets to cold storage because of the Friday bankruptcy. "Process was expedited this evening – to mitigate damage upon observing unauthorized transactions," he said.
Many FTX wallet holders reported $0 balances in their FTX.com and FTX US wallets. FTX’s API appeared to be down, which could account for this. According to on-chain data, various Ethereum tokens as well as Solana and Binance Smart Chain tokens exited FTX's official wallets and moved to decentralized exchanges like 1inch. Both FTX and FTX US appear to be affected.
The transfers occurred on the same day that the firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. after apparently losing – or misappropriating – billions of dollars in user funds. Suspicions – which are conjecture at this point – circulated online about whether, rather than an outside attack, someone inside the company might've been responsible.
On Twitter, members of the cryptocurrency community quickly began to speculate that the outflows could have been coordinated by a member of Bankman-Fried's inner circle, pointing out that the simultaneous and sophisticated hacks of FTX and FTX US are indicative of a potential inside job. Twitter sleuth ZachXBT tweeted Friday night that "multiple former FTX employees confirmed to me that they do not recognize these transfers."
Around midnight Eastern time, FTX's login portal was unavailable (though the site was still online) giving users a 503 error when they attempted to log in. A 503 error happens when the server is unavailable, commonly because it's down for maintenance or unavailable for access.
Read more: FTX Employees Worldwide Learned of Bankruptcy Along With the Public
UPDATE (Nov. 12, 2022, 06:00 UTC): Adds updates and details throughout.
UPDATE (Nov. 12, 2022, 14:21 UTC): Hours after the publication of this article, FTX said it had expedited the move of its remaining funds to cold wallets. Click here for more.
UPDATE (Nov. 12, 2022, 15:25 UTC): Adds context in first paragraph and revisions throughout.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Stablecoin Adoption Is ‘Exploding' — Here's Why Wall Street Is Going All-In
Alchemy co-founder and president Joe Lau said stablecoin adoption is exploding as banks, fintechs and payment platforms push beyond the USDT/USDC exchange era.
What to know:
- Stablecoin usage is quickly broadening from crypto-native exchanges into payments, payroll and treasury as companies chase 24/7, digital-native settlement, according to Alchemy Co-founder and President Joe Lau.
- Banks are pushing tokenized deposits as a regulated, bank-native alternative that delivers stablecoin-like benefits for institutional clients.
- The endgame is a two-track system — stablecoins for open, two-party settlement; deposit tokens for bank ecosystems, until scale forces convergence and competition, Lau said.
Top Stories
