FTX says investigating ‘unauthorized transactions’
Nov 12 (Reuters) – Collapsed crypto exchange FTX said on Saturday it had seen “unauthorized transactions”, with analysts saying millions of dollars worth of assets had been withdrawn from the platform.
Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic said around $473 million worth of cryptoassets were “moved out of FTX wallets under suspicious circumstances early this morning” but could not confirm the tokens were stolen.
FTX US general counsel Ryne Miller said in a tweet shortly after 0700 GMT on Saturday that the firm had “accelerated” the process of moving all digital assets into cold storage “to reduce harm from observing unauthorized transactions”.
After the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings – FTX US and FTX [dot] com initiated precautionary measures to move all digital assets to cold storage. The process was sped up tonight – to reduce damage from observing unauthorized transactions.
— Ryne Miller (@_Ryne_Miller) 12 November 2022
Cold storage refers to crypto wallets that are not connected to the internet to protect against hackers.
Earlier on Saturday, Miller said in a tweet that he was “investigating wallet movement abnormalities related to consolidation of FTX balances across exchanges.”
Investigating wallet movement abnormalities related to consolidation of ftx balances across exchanges – unclear facts as other movements are not clear. Will share more info as soon as we have it. @FTX_Official
— Ryne Miller (@_Ryne_Miller) 12 November 2022
FTX did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Before Miller’s tweets, FTX officials appeared to confirm rumors of a hack on the firm’s Telegram channel, according to a CoinDesk report that said the exchange had instructed customers to delete FTX apps and avoid the site.
“FTX has been hacked,” an account administrator in the FTX Support Telegram channel wrote in a message, according to CoinDesk.
Reuters could not immediately confirm the details posted on FTX’s private Telegram channel.
FTX filed for US bankruptcy protection on Friday and founder Sam Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO.
The ailing crypto trading platform had been struggling to raise billions to stave off collapse as traders pulled $6 billion in crypto tokens from the platform in just 72 hours and rival exchange Binance abandoned a proposed rescue deal this week.
Reporting by Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru and Elizabeth Howcroft in London Editing by William Mallard, Pravin Char and Frances Kerry
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