On Sunday, the cryptocurrency startup Mixin, based in Hong Kong, revealed that it had been hacked and that the thieves made off with approximately $200 million.
The company announced the breach on X, which was once known as Twitter. “In the early morning of September 23, 2023 Hong Kong time, the database of Mixin Network’s cloud service provider was attacked by hackers, resulting in the loss of some assets,” the company stated. “Deposit and withdrawal services on Mixin Network have been temporarily disabled. We apologise for the inconvenience. When the vulnerabilities have been confirmed to have been patched, these services will be reopened, but only after all nodes have had the opportunity to discuss and reach a consensus on the matter.
According to the corporation, it reached out to Google as well as the crypto security firm SlowMist for assistance with the inquiry.
Mixin’s offering is described as a “open and transparent decentralised ledger,” which is “collectively booked and maintained by 35 mainnet nodes.” To put it another way, the Mixin Network is a cross-chain network that functions as both a decentralised exchange and a network that enables users to move digital assets.
“We build open source software that always puts security, privacy, and decentralisation first,” the firm says on its website, where it claims to have one million users as of the month of July. “We build open source software that always puts security, privacy, and decentralisation first.”
Given that Mixin is supposed to be a decentralised system, it is not clear how hackers were able to take money after breaking into the cloud database of Mixin. At this point, it is unknown how hackers were able to do this.
A request for comment was sent to Mixin, Google, and SlowMist; however, none of them immediately responded.
In the same announcement, Mixin stated that it will, at a later time, reveal a “solution” to the problem of the stolen assets, but did not provide any further details.
According to data that is maintained by Rekt, an organisation that publishes a list of hacked crypto organisations and projects, the hack that occurred on Mixin in 2023 was the largest theft that occurred in the world of cryptocurrencies in 2023. The previous record for the most money stolen in a single incident was set by the attack on the cryptocurrency lending platform Euler in March, which resulted in the loss of over $197 million.
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