IOTA Wallet Attack Results in $1.6 Million in Stolen Funds


It’s happened again, folks. Another cryptocurrency hack is in the books, and this time, the victim is IOTA, the 23rd largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

The IOTA Foundation Is Working to Stop Hackers

The IOTA Foundation has decided to shut down its entire network (albeit temporarily) following a simple wallet hack in which attackers walked off with millions in crypto funds. The event is reported to have occurred last Wednesday on February 12. On Twitter, the Foundation released the following message:

We are currently investigating a suspicious situation with Trinity. Please do not open or use Trinity on desktop until further notice.

As a means of combating the vulnerability, IOTA is completely revamping its system and will release a new version of its Trinity wallet soon. According to a blog page, the wallet is still “in progress.” The company explained:

This version will be first and foremost, safe. We have identified the vulnerability and it has been removed from the wallet. This version will allow you to open the wallet and check your balance and transactions. When released, we ask that if you see any unusual activity on your accounts to contact the Discord mod team or IOTA Foundation members directly. Please be aware that there are unfortunately active imposters posing as IOTA Foundation personnel on our Discord. Therefore, it is important that you directly initiate contact with the IF or mod team.

As a means of combating the malicious actors, IOTA shut down a node that’s known as “coordinator.” This node allows transactions to go through and decides if financial transfers are safe. The shutdown is designed to prevent any further activity from the attackers, which it has done at press time, though it has also resulted in the entire network being unable to function.

The IOTA team is actively investigating the hack. Members of the organization claim that attackers may have targeted as many as ten IOTA accounts to get their fingers on funds that didn’t belong to them. Team members themselves are not passing word regarding on how much money has been stolen, though outside sources claim the number exceeds $1.5 million.

A Lot of Money Stolen

IOTA has also commented that legal authorities have entered the fray and are assisting in the investigation. They are hoping to uncover the identities of the hackers soon. In the meantime, the company blog page reads:

We appreciate your patience, right now. We are doing everything we can to resolve this incident in as a secure and smooth a way as possible… We have made substantial progress with the investigation and remediation plan today. We will continue our work with law enforcement and our in-depth analysis of exactly what happened with a remediation plan to secure the funds of Trinity users.

IOTA is currently trading for about 29 cents.

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