Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek said around 400 customer accounts have been compromised in a hack in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Wednesday. His confirmation of the breach comes after multiple Crypto.com users alleged their funds had been stolen – complaints that had until now been met with vague responses from the company.
While Marszalek did not provide details as to how the hack occurred, he told Bloomberg TV that the exchange was back online “about 13-14 hours” after the incident and that all the impacted accounts were reimbursed.
Marszalek’s statement marks the first official acknowledgment by Crypto.com that a hack did, in fact, occur. Crypto.com first paused withdrawals on its platform on Sunday after noting via Twitter that a “small number of users [are] reporting suspicious activity on their accounts.” It also asked customers to reset their two-factor authentication out of “an abundance of caution.”
The company then reassured users numerous times in its communications that customer funds were safe, drawing speculation that Crypto.com would cover any customer losses incurred.
The losses may amount to $15 million worth of ETH, blockchain security provider PeckShield tweeted on Monday. PeckShield claimed in the tweet that about half of the funds were being sent to Tornado Cash to be “washed.” Tornado Cash says it provides “non-custodial anonymous transactions” on the Ethereum blockchain, meaning it can hide where crypto is being sent. Another analyst from blockchain data firm OXT Research speculated that the hack may actually have cost the exchange $33 million.
When asked about the scope of the losses, Marszalek told Bloomberg TV that Crypto.com was still working on a post-mortem of the incident that would be posted on the company’s blog “in the next couple of days.”
While Crypto.com is the world’s fourth-largest crypto exchange, it has been pushing hard into U.S. markets in recent months, with stunts including viral advertisements featuring actor Matt Damon and a $700 million purchase of the naming rights to the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers Arena. It calls itself the “fastest-growing” crypto exchange and expanded its venture capital arm to $500 million to back early-stage startups in the space earlier this week; the fallout regarding this week’s hack could threaten to stall some of its stateside growth.
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