Cryptocurrency Theft Hits Atomic Wallet Users

Since June 2, at least $35 million worth of crypto assets have been plundered from Atomic Wallet users, per an analysis by on-chain detective ZachXBT. The five most significant losses total seventeen million dollars.

According to Atomic Wallet’s Twitter account, the attack’s cause is under investigation. There have been reports of misplaced tokens, wiped-clean transaction histories, and even entire cryptocurrency holdings being taken.

The most prominent victim lost $7.95 million in Tether, according to an investigation conducted by the Twitter pseudonym ZachXBT, who is known for tracing stolen crypto funds and assisting compromised projects. “Think it could exceed $50 million. Sadly, you continue to discover more and more victims,” commented ZachXBT.

Atomic Wallet claims to have more than five million users worldwide. Emre, a Turkish resident who lost nearly $1 million in crypto assets obtained from bug bounty programs, stated, “I felt terrible because I am a cybersecurity expert by trade.”

Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, USDT, USD Coin, Binance Coin, and Polygon are among his stolen tokens.

Emre continued, “They say they are investigating it, but they have no concrete information now.” The funds held by Atomic Wallet were intended for the establishment of a Turkish cybersecurity company.

Atomic is a non-custodial, decentralized wallet, indicating that users are responsible for their assets. As is customary, its Terms of Service exclude liability for on-chain damages users incur.

One excerpt states, “Under no circumstances will Atomic Wallet be liable for damages arising from the services that exceed $50.”

Atomic Wallet has provided limited information to consumers thus far. “The support staff is compiling victim addresses. “We have reached out to major exchanges and blockchain analytics firms to trace and block the stolen funds,” the Atomic team tweeted on June 4 — its second official statement.

Those who contacted Atomic were required to respond to over twenty inquiries regarding internet service providers, virtual private networks (VPNs), and the storage of seed phrases.

In Telegram’s community channels, some suggested that the vulnerability may have originated from an out-of-date dependency application.

Dependency packages define the relationship between activities to be executed within a program, including the order in which they should be completed and the libraries required to perform these activities.

The attack adds to an expanding list of cryptographic breaches. Recent cases include a $7.5 million Jimbos Protocol exploit and a malevolent proposal that seized control of Tornado Cash in May.

A report by Chainalysis estimates that crypto hackers stole $3.8 billion in 2017, primarily by exploiting decentralized finance protocols in attacks linked to North Korea.