Share this article
Crypto Exchange BitMart Hacked With Losses Estimated at $196M
BitMart’s CEO has confirmed what the company is calling a “security breach.”
Updated May 11, 2023, 7:03 p.m. Published Dec 5, 2021, 2:55 a.m.
The latest centralized exchange hack may be among the most devastating to date as BitMart has lost $196 million in various cryptocurrencies.
A tweet from security analysis firm PeckShield first called attention to the alleged hack Saturday night. One of BitMart’s addresses currently shows steady outflows of entire token balances, some worth tens of millions of dollars, to an address currently labeled by Etherscan as the “BitMart Hacker.”
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
In a follow-up tweet, PeckShield estimated the losses to be $100 million in various cryptocurrencies on the Ethereum blockchain and $96 million on Binance Smart Chain.
The hacker has been systematically using decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator 1inch to swap the stolen assets for the cryptocurrency ether , and using a secondary address to deposit the ETH into privacy mixer Tornado Cash thus making the hacked funds harder to track.
In an official Telegram channel, BitMart representatives initially claimed that the outflows were routine withdrawals, referring to the reports of the hack as “fake news.”
Interesting from @BitMartExchange ...😳😳😳 🙏🙏🙏 https://t.co/dFrzSww0fs pic.twitter.com/GuDB7bt2eC
— PeckShield Inc. (@peckshield) December 5, 2021
Hours later, however, BitMart CEO Sheldon Xia confirmed that the outflows were indeed a hack resulting from a “security breach.”
1/3 We have identified a large-scale security breach related to one of our ETH hot wallets and one of our BSC hot wallets. At this moment we are still concluding the possible methods used. The hackers were able to withdraw assets of the value of approximately USD 150 millions.
— Sheldon Xia (@sheldonbitmart) December 5, 2021
The $196 million in losses makes this one of the most devastating centralized exchange hacks to date.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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
Surf Raises $15M to Build AI Model Tailored to Crypto Research
Pantera Capital led the round, with Coinbase Ventures and Digital Currency Group also participating.
What to know:
- Surf raised $15 million to develop "Surf 2.0" and launch an enterprise product aimed at institutional users.
- The firm said it has generated more than 1 million research reports since July and is seeing 50% month-over-month growth.
Top Stories
