When technology cracks: the Mixin Network blockchain project lost $200 million

[CarderPlanet]

The Mixin Network protocol team reported a hacker attack.

The team of the Mixin Network blockchain platform confirmed information from SlowMist, a security company in the blockchain sector, regarding a hacker attack worth approximately $200 million.

Representatives of the project in social networks reported that the database of the cloud service provider Mixin Network was attacked by hackers, which led to the loss of "part of the assets in the main network." "The funds affected amount to approximately $200 million," the company said in a statement.

Currently, the services for depositing and withdrawing funds in the Mixin network are temporarily suspended. The services will be reopened after the vulnerabilities are confirmed and fixed, the company said.

According to the monthly report for July, the value of the 100 largest assets on the Mixin Network platform exceeds $1.1 billion. In July, there were 663,000 unique transactions in bitcoin and about 180,000 transactions in Ethereum (ETH).

Mixin Network is a technology platform that aims to optimize the speed and cost of transfers of crypto assets between different blockchain networks.

 

[CarderPlanet]

On September 23, an unknown person hacked into the cloud service provider Mixin Network and withdrew about $200 million in digital assets.

SlowMist Security Alert

On September 23, the Mixin Network cloud service provider database was attacked, the amount of funds involved was ~ $200M.

SlowMist is assisting in the investigation. Please wait for @MixinKernel updates for more information.
— SlowMist (@SlowMist_Team) September 25, 2023

After the report of Slow Mist analysts, protocol representatives also confirmed the incident.

[Announcement] In the early morning of September 23, 2023 Hong Kong time, the database of Mixin Network's cloud service provider was attacked by hackers, resulting in the loss of some assets on the mainnet. We have contacted Google and blockchain security company @SlowMist_Team…
— Mixin Kernel (@MixinKernel) September 25, 2023

According to the statement, the network database was exploited. The developers have temporarily suspended the deposit and withdrawal of funds.

Mixin Network is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency trading network designed to scale and speed up transactions. The protocol supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, and several other popular coins.

According to the report for July, the value of the 100 largest assets of the protocol network is just over $1.1 billion.

Mixin founder Feng Xiaodong will discuss the incident on the evening of September 25 live while the project team conducts an investigation.

Spot the error: the database of a decentralized network got hacked
— Hope (@btctbtctb) September 25, 2023

"Find the error: the database of the decentralized network was hacked," wrote one of the X users.

 

[CarderPlanet]

The Mixin Network decentralized cross-chain protocol offered the hacker $20 million in exchange for the return of the stolen $200 million. The amount will be considered a reward for detecting a vulnerability in the protocol.

The exploit was used a few days ago. On September 25, the Mixin Network team reported that attackers managed to hack a third-party cloud service provider and confirmed that $200 million worth of crypto assets were stolen from the protocol.

Mixin founder Feng Xiaodong promised that the company will reimburse affected users for "a maximum of 50%" of the stolen funds, and the remaining amount will be returned to the victims in debt tokens, which the project will subsequently redeem from users.

The co-founder of Mixin assured users that most of the work on calculating assets has been completed, and the situation is quite optimistic. The losses were not as significant as previously thought. However, users are advised to temporarily refrain from transactions and market making on the Mixin network in order to prevent new losses.

In the spring, a similar situation occurred, when the DeFi protocol Sentiment reported the theft of more than $500,000. The hacker was persuaded to return 90% of the embezzled funds, and he left $95,000 for himself. The attacker behind the theft of crypto assets from the Curve Finance protocol also agreed to return the stolen goods after negotiations.