The Singapore-based crypto exchange BingX has confirmed it suffered “minor asset loss” after a wealth of “suspicious” outflows from one of its hot wallets was noticed online.
BingX chief product officer Vivien Lin said in a Sept. 20 X post that the BingX technical team “detected abnormal network access” at around 4 am Singapore time and suspected a “hacker attack on BingX’s hot wallet.”
“We immediately started our emergency plan, including the urgent transfer of assets and [withdrawal] suspension,” Lin added.
She said BingX stored a minimal amount of crypto in its hot wallets and that “there has been minor asset loss, but the amount is small and still being calculated.”
Blockchain security firm PeckShield had earlier posted on X that it observed a “suspicious significant fund outflow” from BingX totaling over $13.5 million, while analytics platform Lookonchain reported losses of $26 million.
Lin added the exchange has temporarily suspended withdrawals while it conducts an “emergency inspection and [strengthens] wallet services” and expects withdrawals to be restored within 24 hours.
Source: Vivien Lin
In a separate post, Lin said BingX would “fully compensate” for the losses and that user assets were safe. She reiterated that the loss was “minimal and manageable” and wouldn’t affect its business operations.
A BingX spokesperson told Cointelegraph that “maintaining and checking our wallets is a routine step in protecting the assets. While we are still calculating the losses, we will announce the details soon.”
Earlier on Sept. 20, BingX issued a notice that it was undertaking temporary maintenance of its wallet system and said deposits and withdrawals could be delayed.
Harrison Leggio, the co-founder of crypto startup g8keep who goes by “Pop Punk” on X, criticized BingX’s disclosure of the situation in a Sept. 20 X post.
“Is it ‘wallet maintenance’ or are your wallets being drained?” he asked. “If you’re going to use a [centralized exchange], please use a real one that doesn’t play off exploits like this.”
Source: Harrison Leggio
EtherScan data of an address shared by PeckShield shows the address received millions of dollars worth of a variety of tokens across multiple blockchains from a wallet labeled “BingX 15,” one of the exchange’s hot wallets.
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The wallet was holding over $9.5 million worth of crypto across nine blockchains at the time of writing, dropping from an earlier observed figure of $13.1 million.
Some of the latest transactions show the address transferred small amounts of crypto through the decentralized exchange Kyberswap, a common tactic used by hackers in a bid to obscure the origin of the funds.
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Update (Sept. 20, 3:10 am UTC): This article has been updated to add a response from BingX, an X post from Vivien Lin and BingX’s notice on reported wallet maintenance.
