Thieves pilfered over $300 million worth of Bitcoin from DMM Bitcoin

Thieves made off with more than $300 million worth of Bitcoin from the platform known as DMM Bitcoin

Pierluigi Paganini
June 01, 2024

Criminals swiped approximately 48.2 billion yen ($304 million) worth of Bitcoin from the Japanese digital currency exchange DMM Bitcoin.

The Japanese digital currency exchange DMM Bitcoin disclosed that criminals seized 4,502.9 Bitcoin (BTC), valued at around $304 million (48.2 billion yen), from its wallets.

Upon detecting an unauthorized Bitcoin (BTC) breach from our wallet around 1:26 p.m. on Friday, May 31, 2024, our investigation is ongoing. Despite implementing measures to counteract the breach, certain services have been restricted for added security.

A message published by the exchange on its website, which is currently inaccessible, reads, “We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience to our customers.”

The company assured full protection for customers’ Bitcoin (BTC) deposits.

In response to the robbery, DMM Bitcoin limited the following services:

・ Reviewing new account registrations
・ Handling cryptocurrency withdrawals
・ Halting buy orders for spot trading (only accepting sell orders)
・ Halting new open positions for leveraged trading (only processing settlement orders)

The company assured that limit orders for spot and leveraged trading will remain unaffected, and Japanese Yen withdrawals may experience delays.

Details regarding the attack have yet to be provided by DMM Bitcoin.

Cryptocurrency security firm Elliptic claimed that this event marks the eighth-largest crypto theft in history and the most extensive since the $477 million breach at FTX in November 2022. Elliptic has also identified the wallets involved in the attack.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – cybersecurity, Bitcoin)

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AndyC

Andy Curtis is an award-winning security consultant, researcher and public speaker. He has been working in the computer security industry since the early 1990s, having been employed by state and federal government, leading healthcare and banking providers across three continents. He has given talks about computer security for some of the world’s largest companies, worked with law enforcement agencies on investigations into hacking groups, and is a regular voice on TV and radio explaining IT security threats.

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