ZachXBT calls out Gate.io for keeping 2018 hack under wraps

1 year ago

Cryptocurrency speech Gate.io allegedly covered up a hack that occurred connected April 18, 2018, which saw $230 cardinal swiped from the exchange, according to a Nov. 14 Twitter thread detailing the incidental by on-chain sleuth ZachXBT.

ZachXBT called retired Gate.io’s laminitis and CEO Lin Han for advocating for blockchain plus information and claiming Gate.io has been safeguarding customers’ assets with systematic solutions via a bid of tweets connected Nov. 10 pursuing FTX’s downfall.

ZachXBT besides published a screenshot of his correspondence with Gate.io successful the Twitter thread, which shows that the on-chain sleuth confronted the speech regarding the cover-up. Gate.io brushed disconnected questions and criticisms regarding the cover-up. Instead, it responded that its level is equipped with “many built-in mechanisms” that are immune to penetration by anyone.

Investigating the Gate.io hack

Gate.io was hacked for astir $10,777.94 Bitcoin (BTC), $218,790 Ethereum (ETH), $Z3,783 Zcash, $99,999,000 Dogecoin (DOGE), $3,043,268 Ripple (XRP), $11,000 Litecoin (LTC), and $175,866 Ethereum Classic (ETC), which totaled 234,337,668.88.

At the aforesaid time, it became 1 of the 4 exchanges targeted by North Korean conspirators to money its weapons of wide demolition (WMD) programs that person raised full proceeds estimated astatine up to $2 billion. The different hack victims – YouBit, UpBit, and Bithumb mislaid astir $500 million, $50 million, and $30 million, respectively.

As portion of the Gate.io hack investigation, ZachXBT shared on-chain sleuth Austin @1A1zP1’s bid of tweets that detailed his efforts successful tracing on-chain transactions of the LTC and BTC stolen from Gate.io’s acold wallet addresses.

Austin besides raised concerns astir Gate.io’s reuse of addresses and clusters – groups of bitcoin addresses controlled by 1 entity- that was antecedently hacked successful 2015. This contradicts Gate.io’s claims that it is holding its customers’ cryptocurrency with a precocious level of information and self-description arsenic 1 of the safest exchanges successful the world.

The hack refers to erstwhile Gate.io mislaid of 7,170 Bitcoin from its acold wallets arsenic a effect of a hack erstwhile it was inactive operating nether its archetypal sanction Bter.com.

After the information and pursuing China’s prohibition connected archetypal coin offerings and fiat-to-crypto spot trading successful 2017, Bter.com relaunched arsenic Gate.io and began offering crypto trading and Chinese yuan over-the-counter (OTC) trading. Bter ne'er disclosed however the hack transpired but was capable to retrieve immoderate of the stolen funds.

The station ZachXBT calls retired Gate.io for keeping 2018 hack nether wraps appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.

View source