A major cryptocurrency mining pool has been hit by hackers earlier this month, the company who owns the pool revealed in an announcement. The incident resulted in the theft of digital assets belonging to the pool and its clients worth a combined total of $3 million.
Chinese Authorities Launch Investigation Into Crypto Mining Pool Hack
A subsidiary of the coin minting company Bit Mining has been targeted in a hacking attack, the company said in a press release. The affected entity is a leading bitcoin mining pool, Btc.com, which in the past week accounted for over 2.5% of the pool distribution and has a share exceeding 4% on annual basis.
According to the announcement published Monday, Dec. 26, the platform was hit on Dec. 3, 2022. As a result, $2.3 million worth of digital assets owned by the company and another $700,000 in asset value belonging to its clients were stolen.
The cyberattack has been reported to law enforcement in Shenzhen, China on Dec. 23. The Chinese authorities launched an investigation into the incident and are collecting evidence with the support of relevant agencies, Bit Mining detailed and further emphasized:
The company will devote considerable efforts to recover the stolen digital assets.
The mining firm said that some of Btc.com’s crypto assets have already been secured. It also pointed out that after discovering the breach, it implemented technology designed to better block and intercept hackers, assuring:
Btc.com is currently operating its business as usual, and apart from its digital asset services, its client fund services are unaffected.
Besides the top-10 mining pool, which provides mining services for bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), and litecoin (LTC), Bit Mining Limited also owns the mining device manufacturer Bee Computing and operates coin minting facilities.
Since the Chinese government cracked down on the industry in the spring of 2021, Bit Mining has sought to expand its activities in Kazakhstan, which has become a major crypto mining hotspot. In August of this year, the company announced it had secured a $9.3 million registered direct offering from institutional investors.
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