VinDAX, a Vietnam-based crypto exchange, became the target of a sophisticated hacking attack that saw it loses $500,000 (and perhaps more) in digital assets, the company acknowledged on its Telegram group. The attacker(s) stole 23 digital assets, most of which belonged to the customers and investors of VinDAX.
Although VinDAX is little known in the crypto industry, it has registered itself as the seventh digital exchange that has fallen to a cyber attack this year. While the admin responsible for maintaining VinDAX’s channel on Telegram said that the services of the crypto exchange have been resumed after the attack, it is unclear if the company will release any further information.
VinDAX specializes in the exchange of tokens to projects that are not very well known. Using its Launchpad platform, customers can partake in token sales of blockchain projects such as GMAM and A1, which presently offer their tokens for sale. There are multiple other token sales in different digital currencies that are due on the platform.
Soon after the attack, VinDAX reached out to the various projects whose tokens had been stolen during the attack, asking them to pay VinDAX the funds so that the consumers of those token can withdraw money from the VinDAX service. More specifically, the email said:
“Please lend us an amount of your token/coin equal to 30%-100% the amount that was stolen in the last accident so that we can address the withdrawal request of the users that are related to your token/coin.”
VinDAX is not popular as a crypto exchange in the western markets. However, last month, its website saw a staggering traffic volume of 400,000 people, most of whom were from India. According to web analytics firm SimilarWeb, on average, almost 65% of the people visiting the website are from India.
The impact of the cyber-attack cannot be assessed at the moment. But it can be concluded reasonably that it will hurt the image of the company that boosts itself as “The Most Optimized-Trading-Fee Crypto Exchange in the World” on its website.
More Attacks on Crypo Exchanges Each Year
After the attack on VinDAX, a total of $1.39 billion has been stolen this year on various cryptocurrency exchanges such as Japan’s Bitpoint and Singapore’s Bitrue. The trend in the amount of money stolen each year has been surging increasingly as years pass. With each year, newer and sophisticated attacks are launched on crypto exchanges which rely on obsolete security technology compared to the hackers.
While 2019 was a tough year for digital currency in general, with regulators strangling the efforts of many exchanges to operate freely, the trend seems to be in the favor of crypto-adopters. More exchanges will come into action in 2020 and the number of attacks and the amount of money stolen will be even more unless the crypto exchanges are able to defend themselves with proper advanced countermeasures.
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