Hundreds of millions of dollars in assets were mysteriously siphoned out of the collapsing crypto exchange FTX on Friday, which exchange officials have referred to as a potential “hacking” incident.
FTX Says It May Have Been 'Hacked,' as $600 Million in Crypto is Mysteriously Drained Overnight
Already a company in a spectacular financial and reputational free fall, the once well-respected and heavily promoted cryptocurrency exchange said Friday that it was looking into a barrage of “abnormal” asset transfers sweeping through accounts. The subsequent analysis seemed to suggest that as much as half a billion dollars may have been stolen.
The chaos started late Friday when FTX account holders began taking to Twitter to allege that their funds had disappeared. At 11:52 p.m., an admin for the exchange’s Telegram page posted the following statement:
The timing of this whole episode—less than 24 hours after the company filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy—immediately aroused the suspicions of people online—with many suggesting that this wasn’t a real “hacking” episode but some sort of attempt by FTX insiders to rip off clients and steal half a billion dollars. Some theorized that a small group of FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s “insiders” were behind the apparent theft.
