CoinDCX announces white hat recovery bounty after $44M hack

CoinDCX falls victim to $44 million hack

Indian cryptocurrency exchange CoinDXC has announced a recovery effort after falling victim to a $44 million exploit last Friday, with the firm pledging a bounty for white hat hackers who help retrieve the stolen funds. CoinDXC’s internal accounts used for “liquidity provision” were exploited on Friday, leading to $44 million worth of cryptocurrency being stolen, while user funds remained unaffected.

Recovery bounty program launched

In an effort to recover the stolen funds, CoinDCX CEO Sumit Gupta announced a new recovery bounty program that offers white hat or ethical hackers up to 25% of any recovered funds that can help trace and retrieve them. Gupta stated that the hack did not impact any of the customers and the platform continues to operate as normal.

Renewed wave of centralized exchange exploits

The CoinDCX hack is part of a renewed wave of exploits on centralized cryptocurrency exchanges, according to Michael Pearl, vice president of GTM strategy at blockchain security firm Cyvers. Pearl emphasized that centralized platforms remain prime targets for sophisticated access control attacks, urging exchanges to rethink their security posture and consider preemptive solutions such as real-time wallet monitoring.

Preemptive solutions, such as offchain transaction validation, could prevent 99% of all crypto hacks and scams by simulating and validating blockchain transactions in an offchain environment before mainnet execution, Pearl said. The recent hacks serve as reminders of the vulnerabilities in centralized exchanges and the importance of proactive security measures in the cryptocurrency industry.