Cryptocurrency exchange Lykke has suspended withdrawals after falling victim to an exploit on June 4.
Cryptocurrency exchange Lykke suspended withdrawals after falling victim to an exploit on June 4, according to a social media announcement dated June 10. The exchange claimed that users’ funds were “safe and will be recovered.”
According to the post, Lykke UK and Lykke Corp AG were affected by the attack.
In another post on the same topic, the exchange said withdrawals had been temporarily halted “as a precautionary measure.”
Lykke is a centralized cryptocurrency exchange launched in 2015 and headquartered in Switzerland. It bills itself on its website as a “no-fee cryptocurrency exchange” and claims to have evolved from a “preeminent forex broker.”
Blockchain security researcher SomaXBT claimed to have discovered the attack on June 9. They accused the team of trying to hide the security flaw, saying: “@lykke CTX was exploited and lost $19.5 million in crypto assets, but the team is still trying to hide this do. » In response to his own post, SomaXBT provided a screenshot of a Discord message allegedly from the team. The message stated that the exchange was “performing extensive, unscheduled system maintenance!” »
On June 8, a Lykke user on X complained that the exchange was not working and that there were rumors that it had been hacked.
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In a June 10 post acknowledging the attack, the team apologized to affected users. “We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused and are concerned that this attack has caused all affected customers and partners,” the statement said. The team said the exchange had “strong capital reserves and a diversified portfolio”, which would allow it to withstand any potential losses resulting from the attack, making customer funds “safe”.
The exchange also claimed to have discovered the attacker’s IP addresses, which it would use in a criminal investigation, and that a cybersecurity team had been appointed to work on “blocking and recovering the stolen assets.” The offense lost more than $22 million, according to team estimates.
Blockchain researchers continue to discover unrecognized exploits against centralized exchanges. On April 19, on-chain investigator ZachXBT announced that Rain Exchange had been hacked two weeks earlier for $14.1 million. Rain later admitted to the attack, noting that no customer funds were lost because it “immediately removed the vulnerability from its own reserves.”
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