The VeChain Foundation is subject to crypto heist. The hackers managed to steal 1.1 billion VET.
In an official announcement, VeChain divulged that a hacker broke into the VeChain Foundation’s buyback address. Consequently, s/he got access to 1.1 billion tokens.
The statement reads, “Approximately 1.1 billion VET tokens in this address were transferred into 0xD802A148f38aBa4759879c33E8d04deb00cFB92b, the hacker’s address. All the addresses associated with the said hacker’s address have been tagged on VeChainStats, the list is automatically updated as soon as the hacker sends any funds from the original hacker’s address.”
VeChain has contacted other exchanges with a request to track, blacklist, and freeze all funds received from the hacker’s address. The project is currently investigating the circumstances of the attack. Apparently, the human factor played a significant role.
Thus, one of the employees of the VeChain financial team created an address for the repurchase of coins without following the Standard Procedure of the Fund. VeChain said the audit team missed the vulnerability due to negligence.
The authorities in Singapore are investigating the incident as well. At the moment, there is no further information on the situation. Meanwhile, the VeChain team has contacted the community of “white hackers” and asked to help solve this problem.
CEO of VeChain, Sunny Lu, has already thanked @VeChainStats for the contribution, describing it as “very helpful”.
Thank you @VeChainStats to respond and act urgent to build up this. It has been very helpful. Appreciate all of the response and support from exchanges. https://t.co/8ZU4b6Ko9V
— Sunny LU, VeChain (@sunshinelu24) December 13, 2019
Besides, he is ready to comment on the unfavorable developments and will be live on his twitter at 10 pm (UTC+8)
In lieu of recent events, VeChain CEO Sunny Lu will be live on his twitter @sunshinelu24 at 10pm (UTC+8) tonight to address the community.
— VeChain Foundation (@vechainofficial) December 14, 2019
A wave of hack attacks
The incident adds to an already impressive 2019 list of hacks. The biggest one happened just at the end of November. Back then, hackers penetrated the South Korean Upbit exchange and got access to ETH coins worth almost $50 million. Now Binance is closely monitoring the movement of these funds.
Previously, Altcoin Buzz reported about a $1 million lawsuit against Bittrex.