Cyber-criminals have stolen "almost all funds" entrusted to crypto exchange platform Altsbit.
The Italian exchange announced it had become the target of a devastating hack yesterday on Twitter. According to their posts, criminals made off with 1,066 Komodo (KMD) tokens and 283,375 Verus (VRSC) "coins" with a combined value of $27,000.
Funds kept in cold storage—crypto coins whose private keys are stored on devices that exist in an offline environment—were not swiped in the cyber-heist.
In a statement released on Twitter at 2:24 a.m. on February 6, Altsbit wrote: "Dear users, unfortunately we have to notify you with the fact that our exchange was hacked during the night and almost all funds from BTC, ETH, ARRR and VRSC were stolen. A small part of the funds are safe on cold wallets."
How the thieves were allegedly able to make off with the money has not yet been revealed. Altsbit said that an investigation into the hack has been launched in a bid to discover how it happened.
On Twitter, the company wrote: "We are now on analysis of the amount of loss and technical issues of the hack. We will come back soon with more details."
Altsbit, which described itself in its Twitter bio as "Your reliable cryptocurrency partner," has come under fire from social media users.
Tim Tayshum, who is on Twitter as @ezCoinAccess, wrote: "The only way they can keep the RE-LIABLE is to drop the "RE" and take responsibility for shit security protocols. How is it that 6yrs after Mt. Gox there are STILL exchanges who don't know that hot wallet is only for live-execution flow and cold storage is for the other 97.5%!"
Other users were skeptical that a hack had actually occurred. Twitter user @kundalini2020 called the alleged theft an "exit scam."
Another user, @Psyagnostic, replied to Altsbit's hack announcement post with: "Dear users, unfortunately we have to notify you that we have decided to steal all your money and blame it on a hack. Please deposit more funds ASAP so that we can continue operations and you can keep on enjoying trading at Your Reliable Cryptocurrency Partner™. Thanks!!"