Crypto Exchange Poloniex Resumes Withdrawals After $100M Hack

Poloniex Resumes Operations After Major Crypto Hack

Justin Sun’s cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex is preparing to resume operations after a significant crypto hack in November, according to an official company announcement posted Nov. 15.

The platform has “mostly completed” the restoration efforts after the $100 million hack, Poloniex said in its most recent update on the resumption of deposit and withdrawal services. To bolster the security of funds on Poloniex, the exchange has enlisted a “top-tier security auditing firm” and is preparing to resume crypto withdrawals soon.

The evaluation process is still ongoing and is estimated to take several more days, the firm added.

Poloniex Suffers Major Security Breach

Cointelegraph’s request for comment was not immediately answered by Poloniex. On Nov. 10, Poloniex experienced a major crypto hack, with attackers stealing a minimum of $100 million in digital currency from the exchange. After realizing the suspicious outflows, the Poloniex team disabled the wallet. According to blockchain security firm CertiK, the incident is likely a “private key compromise.”

Poloniex’s owner, Sun, who acquired the exchange in 2019, took to X (formerly Twitter) soon after the wallet was disabled and reported that the team was already investigating the crypto hack. Sun promised to reimburse the users affected by the breach, claiming that Poloniex “maintains a healthy financial position” and is looking for collaborations with other exchanges to recover the lost funds.

Earlier in 2023, Poloniex agreed to pay a $7.6 million settlement requested by the United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control related to more than 65,000 apparent violations of multiple crypto alerts Justin Verrengia sanctions programs.