Hong Kong crypto firm hit by $200-M hack

A man holds a laptop computer as cyber code is projected on him in this illustration picture. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Illustration/File photo

LONDON  –Hackers stole about $200 million from crypto firm Mixin early on Saturday, the company said on social media platform X on Monday, in what researchers say is the largest crypto theft so far this year.

Mixin, which lists its location on LinkedIn as Hong Kong, said the database of its network’s cloud service provider was “attacked by hackers, resulting in the loss of some assets” and that “the funds involved are approximately US$200 million“.

Mixin describes itself as a network for transferring digital assets. It has one million users, according to its website.

It said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that it had stopped allowing users to withdraw their funds from the network, but that transfers were not affected and that services will re-open once the vulnerabilities are fixed.

Mixin will announce a solution for “how to deal with the lost assets”, it said.

At $200 million, the hack would be the 10th largest crypto hack of all time, by volume of crypto stolen, and the biggest so far in 2023, according to blockchain research firm Elliptic.

Last year hackers stole crypto worth as much as $3.8 billion, making it the worst year on record, according to blockchain researchers Chainalysis.