Crypto payment platform Alphapo recently had a security incident, with at least $31 million drained from its hot wallets on Ether (ETH), TRON (TRX), and Bitcoin (BTC). According to on-chain sleuth ZachXBT, the funds were stolen on the Ethereum network, then swapped for ETH before being bridged to the Avalanche and Bitcoin blockchains. Investigations are still in progress, but DeDotFi’s security team believe the hack may have been caused by a leak of private keys.
Alphapo is best known for being the crypto gateway for a number of gambling platforms, including HypeDrop, Ignition, and Bovada. As a result of the incident, HypeDrop stopped processing crypto transactions, and stated that funds are safe, but they encountered an issue on the cryptocurrency provider’s side. Alphapo’s spokesperson said deposits and withdrawals are being reinstated for batches of currencies at a time, and users should refrain from sending funds to the old deposit addresses.
In another security incident over the past few days, decentralized finance protocol Conic Finance experienced two attacks in a matter of hours, resulting in the theft of $3.26 million in Ether and $300,000.
Should crypto projects ever negotiate with hackers? Probably. Negotiation could potentially have positive outcomes for both parties, especially in the wake of data breaches and other security incidents.
