Cryptopia reveals around 9% of the exchange’s total holdings was stolen during January hack

New Zealand-based cryptocurrency exchange Cryptopia has issued an update on the amount of funds stolen by hackers in January.

As reported by Coin Rivet, it was initially thought that more than $11 million was stolen due to the exchange’s hot wallets being breached.

Local law enforcement claimed to have been making “excellent progress” in the investigation into the hack, despite admitting that it may take some time due to the complexity of blockchain forensics.

In an update on Wednesday, Cryptopia said: “We are continuing to work on assessing the impact incurred as a result of the hack in January. Currently, we have calculated that worst case 9.4% of our total holdings was stolen.”

Although a monetary figure was not confirmed by the exchange, blockchain data analytics firms predict that as much as $16 million in Ethereum and ERC-20 tokens was lost.

Cryptopia added to its update by saying that it is “securing each wallet individually to ensure the exchange is fully secure when we resume trading.”

The exchange went on to warn customers about depositing funds into old Cryptopia addresses, adding: “As a result of the new wallets, please immediately refrain from depositing funds into old Cryptopia addresses. We have more updates to come tomorrow, keep an eye on our page.”

The Cryptopia ordeal, coupled with the QuadrigaCX scandal that has seen $190 million of customers’ funds tied up, is a clear demonstration of why cryptocurrency investors should take control of their private keys instead of leaving funds on an exchange.

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