Crypto Hedge Fund BlockTower Suffers A Major Exploit, But How?
A prominent crypto hedge fund, BlockTower Capital, has emerged as the last firm to suffer a major blow from hackers. According to reports, hackers infiltrated the company's system, carting away a hefty sum from its assets under management (AUM).
The amount exploited remains unknown, but the firm is working with blockchain forensic analysts to investigate the matter.
Hacker Partially Drains BlockTower's AUMBloomberg reported that fraudsters compromised and partially drained BlockTower Capital's AUM, citing sources familiar with the matter.While BlockTower has yet to release any official statement, data from PitchBook revealed it has up to $1.7 billion in assets under management.
The stolen funds have yet to be recovered, while the fraudster is still on the loose. However, the crypto hedge fund is working with forensics analysts to determine the nature of the exploit.
BlockTower came on board in 2017, establishing offices in New York and Miami. In 2022, the company generated about $150 million as a venture fund.
The firm has also ventured into various digital asset sectors. These include strategic investments in gaming studio Sky Mavis, NFT developer Dapper Labs, and Terra USD stablecoin issuer Terraform Labs.
This isn't the first setback BlockTower Capital has faced since its launch. In 2023, the crypto hedge fund closed its market-neutral" crypto fund, which managed over $100 million in assets. The decision came after the fund lost all its investment opportunities.
Growing Incidents Of Crypto Attacks In The IndustryThe crypto industry has recorded several exploits over the past few years. One of the latest attacks is the Soone Finance hack. On May 14, 2024, blockchain security company Cyvers reported an attack on Soone Finance, a DeFi Protocol.
The attack is ongoing and much bigger, an additional $17 million has been stolen and the total value loss is more than $20 million. @SonneFinance please take immediate action. https://t.co/k39W09J8Bd
-
Cyvers Alerts
The platform exploit came as a series of attacks. Initially, Cyvers noted the drain of $3 million from Sonne's USD Coin (USDC) and Wrapped Ethereum (WETH) contracts on its Optimism chain.
However, the stolen amount grew as the hacker continued to drain funds from the platform. According to the security firm, the exploiter made away with approximately $20 million in digital assets.
Sonne Finance confirmed the incident on its official account an hour after the attack. It mentioned halting its activities on Optimism but directed users to its markets on Base.
The DeFi protocol stated, All markets on Optimism have been paused. Markets on Base are safe." The protocol's team also disclosed its current investigation of the exploit and promised to provide more details later.
All markets on Optimism have been paused.
Markets on Base are safe.
We'll provide more information with time.
- Sonne Finance (@SonneFinance) May 15, 2024
Last week, a hacker used a poisoning scam to drain over $71 million in WBTC tokens. However, afternegotiations, the fraudster returned the stolen funds.
Also, Bahrain-based exchange Rain lost a staggering $14.8 million in BTC, ETH, XRP, and SOL through a hack on April 29, 2024. The breach on the platform set the crypto community in a daze.
The blockchain sleuth ZachXBT first escalated the exploit, exposing the security compromise on the exchange's platform.
The post Crypto Hedge Fund BlockTower Suffers A Major Exploit, But How? appeared first on The Tech Report.