Share this article
BitMart CEO Says Stolen Private Key Behind $196M Hack
The crypto exchange’s CEO said the company will compensate affected users out of its own funds.
Updated May 11, 2023, 6:32 p.m. Published Dec 6, 2021, 7:33 a.m.
Hackers were able to drain $196 million of crypto from crypto exchange BitMart by stealing a private key that opened two hot wallets, BitMart CEO Sheldon Xia tweeted on Monday.
- Hackers stole $100 million worth of various cryptocurrencies on the Ethereum blockchain and $96 million on Binance Smart Chain, crypto security firm PeckShield revealed on Dec. 5.
- BitMart has completed an initial security check and identified affected assets, and it plans to compensate users out of its own pocket, Xia said.
- The exchange will announce a timetable to gradually continue deposits and withdrawals, he said, adding that he is “confident” they will resume on Dec. 7.
- The hackers used decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch to swap stolen tokens for ether, and deposited ether funds to privacy mixer Tornado Cash to hide their identities, PeckShield said.
- A $139 million hack of BXH Exchange in October was also the result of leaked administrator’s keys.
Read more: Crypto Exchange Bitmart Hacked With Losses Estimated at $196M
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
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
Solana’s Drift Launches v3, With 10x Faster Trades
With v3, the team says that about 85% of market orders will fill in under half a second, and liquidity will deepen enough to bring slippage on larger trades down to around 0.02%.
What to know:
- Drift, one of the largest perpetuals trading platforms on Solana, has launched Drift v3, a major upgrade meant to make on-chain trading feel as fast and smooth as using a centralized exchange.
- The new version will deliver 10-times faster trade execution thanks to a rebuilt backend, marking the largest performance jump the project has made so far.
Top Stories
