Japanese exchange DMM Bitcoin announced Friday that more than $300M in BTC had been stolen from its wallets.
What's the scoop?
- Reimbursement Incoming: After announcing the theft, DMM Bitcoin assured clients it would reimburse them for any losses resulting from the heist.
- 8th Largest Hack: Approximately 4,502.9 BTC, valued at about $306M, were taken in the breach. Crypto forensics firm Elliptic stated this exploit ranks as the eighth-largest crypto theft ever and the largest since the $477M hack of FTX in November 2022.
Bankless Take:
Sadly this stands as another reminder of, not your keys, not your coins. Centralized exchanges make for just as good targets as DeFi protocols, arguably better given the attack vectors inherent to large centralized companies. Hacks like this reinforce the importance of self-custodying your crypto, only bringing it to exchanges when you are looking to off-ramp. Given the momentous amounts of money that flow through crypto exchanges, I would not expect these hacks to go away anytime soon. Rather, it would be best to double down on vigilance and beef up your crypto security wherever possible.