Cryptocurrency exchange DragonEx hacked as customer funds remain ‘missing’

Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange DragonEx has fallen victim to hackers this week with customer funds being siphoned out of the platform.

According to an announcement on DragonEx’s official Telegram channel, hackers “stole” and “transferred” crypto assets from the exchange to several wallets.

No information in regards to the value of the stolen assets has been released, although DragonEx confirmed that “part of the assets were retrieved”.

The announcement stated: “Part of the assets were retrieved back, and we will do our best to retrieve back the rest of the stolen assets. Several judicial administrations were informed about this cybercrime case including Estonia, Thailand, Singapore, and Hong Kong, and we’re assisting police with their investigations.”

DragonEx took the platform offline on Monday when the hack was first noticed. The company then provided an update claiming that “maintenance was still ongoing” before finally revealing that a malicious hack had taken place.

The updates have all been routed from DragonEx’s Telegram channel, with its Twitter page currently being “temporarily restricted”.

The announcement continued: “We have encountered attacks from hackers and our users’ crypto assets and DragonEx’s crypto assets are both stolen. International police are investigating. Please wait for following announcements about the situation.”

DragonEx is reportedly asking for assistance in finding the hackers, with a number of USD Tether wallet addresses being accused of facilitating the theft.

This case is the latest in a long line of cryptocurrency exchange hacks over the past few months. New Zealand-based Cryptopia saw a loss of more than $12 million when hackers accessed its cold wallets, while Japanese exchange CoinCheck lost close to an astonishing $500 million before having to manually refund customers.

This coupled with BitWise’s recent report on fake cryptocurrency exchange volume demonstrates a vital need for regulation, with safeguarding investors taking absolute priority.

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