The blockchain network announced Sunday (July 26) that an attacker had compromised ownership of its WEMIX$ stablecoin, converting it into 30,736 WEMIX and $724,198.27 in USDC stablecoins.
Those coins were “transferred to Ethereum and BSC through bridges, then swapped into and distributed across assets including ETH and USDT. A portion of the assets was subsequently deposited into centralized exchanges,” the announcement said.
The company said the figures are a reflection of what it had learned so far and could change as its investigation continues.
“The attacker’s wallets and fund movements have been identified and are being actively tracked,” WEMIX added. “Requests for asset freezes and cooperation have been submitted to the relevant exchanges and stablecoin issuers.”
The news comes less than a week after the cryptocurrency wallet SecondFi said it was winding down following an attack that drained $2.4 million from its users.
These incidents are part of a series of recent exploits at digital asset platforms this year, including the theft of around $292 million from the Kelp DAO decentralized finance (DeFi) platform, which triggered a chain reaction that erased nearly $9 billion from the largest DeFi lending platform.
As PYMNTS wrote soon after, the incident underlined the “unavoidable tensions” between crypto’s wish for open, interoperable systems and the demand from the institutional financial world for security and control. This is something that has traditionally defined and even slowed blockchain’s evolution.
“Does this delay the institutional adoption of DeFi? Maybe,” Ryan Rugg, global head of digital assets for Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions, said in an episode of PYMNTS “From the Block” podcast. “It is going to take some of the confidence out of the market.”
Still, Rugg would not go as far as calling the exploit a defining setback, arguing that any institutionally driven decision will likely depend on whether companies can establish “proper redundancy and security at every layer where the trust resides.”
Meanwhile, a bill introduced in the U.S. House last month would establish a federal task force to combat crypto theft and support victims.
The Federal Cryptocurrency Theft Enforcement and Coordination Act, introduced by Reps. Lance Gooden (R-Texas) and Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), would create the Federal Cryptocurrency Theft Task Force. This organization would be a joint effort by the departments of the Treasury, Justice and Homeland Security, as well as federal law enforcement agencies.
