On Sunday, December 11, the cryptocurrency exchange Binance had a pricing glitch fluctuation that put a number of people on edge. Changpeng Zhao, CEO and founder of Binance, wrote a statement clarifying that this was not the result of a hack on his Twitter account.
As a result of the pricing issue, a huge number of alternative cryptocurrencies, such as OM, AMP, NEXO, POLS, SUN, ARDR, BIFI, XVS, ARK, LOOM, and OSMO, were exchanged against each other in Binance, according to a post made by a Chinese blockchain reporter named Colin Wu. He stated that it seems that hackers associated with the cryptocurrency trading platform known as 3Commas obtained the API KEY for certain customers, and that this theft was likely caused by the hackers.
Under the tweet, 3Commas sent a reply stating that there was no leak on the software. They also asked customers who were impacted to report the incident to their local police so that authorities may conduct an investigation in an appropriate manner.
In its statement, 3Commas said:
“We’d like to address some frequently asked questions and concerns raised from users affected by the attack on exchange APIs. If you haven’t heard about it, a number of users of Binance, OKX, FTX and some other exchanges have experienced unauthorized trades initiated via API keys.
If the hackers are part of a well-organized criminal syndicate, they likely waited until they had amassed a large enough number of API keys and the timing was right before they launched their attack.
According to 3Commas, they are investigating whether or not a pattern can be identified in order to alert their exchange partners and law enforcement agencies. This might lead to further preventative measures being taken on their side to safeguard the accounts of other users.
