DragonEx Was Hacked. Here’s What We Know So Far

Singapore-based exchange DragonEx was hacked on March 24, and it’s still not clear what happened.

The 7-year-old exchange pulled its servers offline on Sunday, saying it was conducting a “system maintenance/upgrade.” But the next day, the exchange announced on its Telegram channel that it had been hacked, acknowledging that cryptocurrency funds of both users and the exchange had been stolen.

It’s unclear how much was taken, but DragonEx said it hoped to release that figure within a week. Before withdrawals were frozen, DragonEx had reported $189,584,463 USD in trades, according to CoinMarketCap, making it one of the 40 most valuable exchanges in the world.

Exchange hacks are common. In 2018 nearly $1 billion was stolen this way. The most notable example was Coincheck, which lost $530 million. Others included BitGrail, which saw $195 million stolen, and Zaif, which lost close to $60 million.

In the statement, DragonEx also said it is “assisting policemen to do investigation. All platform services will be closed and the accurate assets loss recovery situation will be announced in a week. For the loss caused to our users, DragonEx will take the responsibility no matter what.”

On Tuesday, the exchange provided another announcement, sharing a list of wallet addresses where the stolen funds were allegedly transferred. DragonEX called on fellow exchanges for aid and coordination, stating in its Telegram channel that “We earnestly request help from all our fellow exchanges and other industry strength, please help us to investigate and traced the assets, freeze them and stop the assets flows.”

DragonEx's most recent update on their Telegram channel.

Today, in the most recent update, DragonEx posted that the Hong Kong Cyber Security and Technology Crime Investigation Bureau has set up a special investigation team to investigate the matter, with DragonEx assisting in evidence collection. They’ve also been in contact with most of the other exchanges worldwide.

“With efforts and help form all strength, part of the assets are freezed but still large part of the stolen assets are still flowing fast,” read the post. “DragonEx will try best to retrieve back more assets. Meanwhile, we’re grateful to all exchanges that offer us the support, e.g Coinbene, Gate, Bitmart, Huobi, Binance, Bittrex, Bitforex.”

DragonEx is also warning users against potentially fraudulent private messages offering help to customers, reminding people in its Telegram channel that DragonEx customer service staff does not ask users for personal account information.