Crypto Hack: Indonesia’s Indodax Goes Offline After Suspected $22M Breach

Indonesian cryptocurrency exchange Indodax is the latest to fall victim to a hack, resulting in the theft of approximately $22 million in digital assets.

Indodax Pauses Platform Operations Due To Security Breach

According to a post by blockchain security firm SlowMist on X, the hackers stole digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC), multiple ERC-20 tokens from the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, TRX and USDT tokens from the Tron (TRX) blockchain, Polygon (POL), and ETH from the Optimism (OP) blockchain. The total loss is estimated to be around $22 million.

Indodax confirmed the hack and has temporarily paused all platform operations due to “maintenance” activities. The trading platform has assured its users that their crypto funds are safe. The exchange said:

Currently, we are conducting a complete maintenance to ensure the entire system is operating properly. During this maintenance process, the INDODAX web platform and application are temporarily inaccessible.

Founded in 2014, Indodax primarily serves the Indonesian crypto market and recorded a total trading volume of slightly more than $11 million in the past 24 hours. 

SlowMist’s analysis ruled out any possible hot wallet hack. Rather, the blockchain security firm notes that it is possible that Indodax’s withdrawal system was compromised, which gave hackers access to the exchange’s hot wallet and the ability to withdraw funds seamlessly.

Similarly, digital assets security firm Cyvers noticed “multiple suspicious transactions involving wallets on different networks.” The wallet address suspected of orchestrating the hack could be observed swapping different tokens to ETH. While it remains to be seen what the hacker’s next moves will be, they typically leverage cryptocurrency mixers like Tornado Cash to obscure the trail of their crypto transactions.

Data from CoinMarketCap indicates that Indodax has sufficient reserves to compensate for the lost funds. At press time, Indodax’s total financial reserves are worth $367 million, and the bulk of their funds are distributed among digital currencies such as BTC, ETH, PEPE, SHIB, and USDT. However, data from Arkham Intelligence estimates the total figure to be even higher, at $409 million.

Cryptocurrency Hacks Surge In 2024

Yosi Hammer, head of AI at Cyvers told BSCN that the characteristics and patterns of the Indodax hack closely resemble those of the notorious North Korean hacking group Lazarus.

Close followers of the crypto industry would know of Lazarus, the infamous hacking group responsible for executing multiple high-profile hacks over the past few years. For instance, the recent hack of Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX is linked to Lazarus, which resulted in a loss of $234 million in user funds.

A recent report by Immunefi noted that hackers are keeping up with advances in security in the crypto industry as the value of total stolen funds has increased by 15.5% compared to 2023 for the same period. BTC trades at $56,701 at press time, down 1% in the last 24 hours.

Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Charts from CoinMarketCap.com, TradingView.com