The cryptocurrency market has had a rough time these past weeks. Bitcoin fell below $30,000 which it remained at for weeks and the cryptocurrency market slipped below the trillion-dollar milestone for the first time since January 2021.
Since last year, crypto hacks have become more common and just last week, Horizona cryptocurrency firm mostly described as a blockchain bridge lost $100 million worth of cryptocurrency to hackers.
The recent occurrence is the most recent major heist in what has been a chain of hacks on various cryptocurrency companies.
Last year, cryptocurrency firm Poly Network lost over $600 million worth of cryptocurrencies in what is the largest crypto heist of all time as of that time. Another platform Crypto.com lost $33 million after hackers hacked into about 400 accounts of its customers. Bitmart also lost $196 million to hackers after “a large-scale security breach.” Ronin Network, the backer of the popular blockchain game Axie Infinity that allows users to earn cash while they play games, also lost over $615 million to hackers and holds the record of the largest DeFi hack in history.
While information about the hack on Horizon is quite limited, the platform’s developers Harmony said that the theft was first noticed last week Wednesday morning and believes that an individual account is responsible. Experts think that the breach resulted from a “private key compromise,” where hackers obtained the password, or passwords, required to gain access to a crypto wallet.
“We have begun working with national authorities and forensic specialists to identify the culprit and retrieve the stolen funds,” Horizon announced in a tweet shared late Wednesday. In another tweet Horizon shared, later on, it added that it was working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation as well as various cybersecurity firms to investigate the attack on its platform.
Blockchain bridges like Horizon provide the medium for users to move their assets from one blockchain to another. This big role, however, seems to come with a huge security risk.
Ibhadojemu Lucky Emmanuel is a graduate of Education and Economics from the University of Benin. He has a passion for tech and business and has been writing professionally for over a period of five years. He's written across various topics and segments and knew tech-business was it when he first stumbled on it. He has a great passion for music and arts, and wants to visit as many countries as he can someday.
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