Atomic Wallet, a prominent cryptocurrency wallet provider, has recently taken action to safeguard its users’ assets, freezing over $2 million after detecting suspicious deposits in collaboration with renowned exchanges.
Partnership with Blockchain Intelligence Firms
According to an announcement on October 18, 2023, Atomic Wallet has sought assistance from blockchain intelligence firms Chainalysis and Crystal in their efforts to identify and contain unlawfully obtained funds resulting from an undisclosed hack.
“We are grateful to the centralized cryptocurrency exchanges for their swift collaboration in freezing assets linked to reported transactions,”
It is worth noting that the majority of these assets were found to originate from the Tron and Bitcoin blockchains after passing through decentralized protocols as an attempt to conceal their source.
Addressing Previous Incidents
This latest development follows a significant hack that Atomic Wallet experienced in June 2023, resulting in the reported loss of approximately $100 million in stolen cryptocurrency assets. While the specifics surrounding the exploit have not been clarified by Atomic Wallet, blockchain investigator MistTrack suggests that the hackers may be associated with North Korea.
“The hackers’ utilization of THORChain and the use of the Swift blockchain to transfer stolen Ether to multiple Bitcoin addresses indicate potential involvement of North Korean hackers,”
Atomic Wallet took immediate measures to mitigate the impact of the incident. They promptly alerted users through their social media channels about the potential attack and suspended all app downloads and updates as a precautionary step. Additionally, they engaged leading blockchain analysis companies to initiate a thorough investigation.
In their public statement, Atomic Wallet clarified that they do not hold custody of users’ funds, and developers have never had access to them. The company assured its users that less than 1% of its user base was affected by the hack. Furthermore, Atomic Wallet emphasized that clients’ crypto assets are securely stored on the blockchain, with private keys encrypted on users’ local devices.
It is important to note that in August 2023, a group of Atomic Wallet users impacted by the breach initiated a class-action lawsuit against the company. They claimed that Atomic Wallet had not conducted a technical inquiry and failed to provide sufficient information to its users. However, it remains unclear whether the frozen funds discovered in this recent investigation are directly connected to the previous hack.
