KuCoin Hackers Found, $200 Million Recovered

KuCoin CEO Johnny Lyu has revealed that the hackers who robbed his platform on September 25^th have been apprehended in close cooperation with police forces and that thanks to agreements with other exchanges, some $204 million in stolen crypto has thus far been recovered. The community does remain skeptical about the whole ordeal, with many claiming that KuCoin has been very secretive throughout the week.

Mt Gox

As a reminder, we reported last week how hackers had stolen some $190 million from KuCoin, a popular cryptocurrency exchange operated in Singapore. The number was quickly adjusted upwards to some $280 million, making it one of the biggest crypto heists ever.

Biggest ever hack was Coincheck (in 2018) , which saw $534 million get stolen, closely followed by the holy grail of crypto hacks, the infamous Mount Gox one (in 2011), for some $460 million.

A quick update since my last livestream on Sep 30.

After a thorough investigation, we have found the suspects of the 9.26 #KuCoin Security Incident with substantial proof at hand. Law enforcement officials and police are officially involved to take action.

— lyu_johnny (@lyu_johnny) October 3, 2020

Thanks to cooperation with other exchanges, the thieves could be flushed out quickly as no other platform wanted to be accused of allowing them to deal stolen coins.

KuCoin security incident update: $204M in different assets are out of the control of the suspicious addresses. According to the latest tweets from @kucoincom CEO @lyu_johnny the suspects of the recent Security Incident has been found with substantial proof at hand. pic.twitter.com/OB1akEFnAe

— ICO Analytics (@ICO_Analytics) October 3, 2020

Yesterday, Lyu tweeted:

A quick update since my last live stream on Sep 30. After a thorough investigation, we have found the suspects of the Kucoin Security Incident with substantial proof at hand. Law enforcement officials and police are officially involved to take action. With great support from our partners in the industry, another $64 million in assets are now out of the control of the suspicious addresses, bringing the total value to $204 million since Oct 1.

The community remains skeptical though.

I don’t understand why everyone is expressing so much appreciation for @kucoincom and @lyu_johnny throughout all this. They have been super secretive, super slow to respond, and making really dumb moves like not suspending trading immediately. The hacker drained funds over hours?

— Steve Gross (@SJGdtsb) October 3, 2020

Whereas many claimed in the beginning the hack might have been an inside job, even the news of the arrest was not enough to convince some. KuCoin was being called out for being secretive and super slow to respond. Expect more details to follow in the coming days.