A prominent cryptocurrency exchange based in the United Kingdom, known as Lykke, has recently ceased its trading activities. The decision came after the company fell victim to an exploit following a security breach on June 4th, resulting in a reported loss of $22 million. The platform shared updates on the situation on the social media platform X.
Lykke UK and Lykke Corp AG (Lykke) experienced an attack on their infrastructure on June 4th, leading to an immediate shutdown of affected systems to minimize the impact. The security breaches were thoroughly investigated and promptly addressed.
Reports indicate that the attacker exploited private keys, prompting the exchange to halt trading on June 6th citing unauthorized access. This incident occurred shortly after the security breach was detected. In the previous month, the exchange had a trading volume of $2.5 million.
Customers of Lykke are currently unable to access their assets, with many reporting empty account balances, indicating a possible hack. Half of the affected funds were in Bitcoin, with the remainder in Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, and Ether. Onchain data shows that the Ether tokens were quickly exchanged for the stablecoin DAI.
The attacker has divided the Bitcoin among different wallets, a common tactic used to obfuscate the transaction trail when attempting to launder funds. The platform has not provided detailed information about the incident, but CEO Richard Olsen sent an email to customers on June 6th apologizing for the downtime.
Olsen reassured customers that their funds are secure, stating that the company is investigating the root cause of the breach and has robust capital reserves. The platform’s website currently displays a maintenance message following the incident.
The company claims to have identified the attacker’s IP addresses through internal investigations and has engaged a cybersecurity firm to recover the assets. Trading operations have been suspended as a precautionary measure, with plans to remain closed until further notice.