Coins.ph Suffers 12M XRP Exploit
Coins.ph, a leading cryptocurrency exchange in the Philippines, is grappling with the alleged loss of over 12 million XRP tokens, valued at $6 million, in a purported exploit.
That’s according to various reports that have been emerging from the Philippines in recent days. The incident not only spotlights serious questions about the security protocols and regulatory oversight of crypto exchanges in the Philippines but it also sparked fears of an impact on market sentiment relative to the XRP unit price.
Hacker used various platforms
The reports revealed that an exploit targeted Coins.ph, resulting in the unauthorized transfer and exchange of 12 million XRP tokens in a mere 30 minutes. The hacker behind this incident managed to navigate through various platforms, including OKX, WhiteBIT, OrbitBridge, SimpleSwap, ChangeNOW, and Fixed Float, leaving users and investors alarmed.
Coins.ph’s wallet, the focal point of the exploit, has a connection to BitGo, a California-based crypto custody firm, which initiated its activation back in 2018. At present, neither Coins.ph nor BitGo has issued any official statements regarding this reported breach.
The alleged exploit brings to the forefront once again, the importance of robust security protocols and regulatory oversight within the cryptocurrency industry in the Philippines and elsewhere. Coins.ph is a major player in the crypto sector in the Southeast Asian country, having more than 10 million users.
The hacker responsible for the exploit attempted to execute several transactions, trading nearly 13 million XRP tokens, with one transaction seemingly failing to go through. Following the successful acquisition of approximately 12.2 million XRP tokens, the hacker swiftly moved these assets to different exchanges.
Responding to the incident, some platforms promptly blocked or marked the stolen XRP tokens and sought assistance from blockchain analysis firms such as Cristal and Chainalysis. This exploit is being deemed as one of the most substantial thefts of XRP tokens in recent history.
It’s understood that WhiteBIT blocked the movement of some of the XRP that has been implicated in the hack. WhiteBIT told The Block: “WhiteBIT, as soon as received a request from the Philippines-based exchange Coins, promptly reacted and blocked 445,000 Ripple.”
XRP impact
XRP, the native cryptocurrency of the Ripple network, which primarily focuses on facilitating cross-border payments, has been grappling with its price stability in recent times. This has been largely due to the ongoing legal disputes between Ripple and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over allegations of conducting unregistered securities offerings.
While it had been speculated initially that the hack would have impacted the XRP unit price, XRP seems to have held up well. At the time of writing, it was trading at $0.526. There has been an overall uplift in the crypto market as a whole over the course of the past 24 hours which may be a contributing factor, with digital asset market cap being up 2.7%.
As the crypto community waits for official responses from Coins.ph and BitGo, the incident serves as a stark reminder of the importance of safeguarding digital assets and enhancing regulatory oversight in an industry that continues to evolve and expand.
