APEX drops 32% amid community claims of suspicious minting and possible hack

Community members raised allegations that Apex Protocol (APEX), a decentralized perpetual futures exchange known for close ties to Bybit, a crypto exchange with Chinese roots, may have been exposed to a hack. According to multiple crypto communities, around midnight on Sept. 8, 8 million APEX tokens, worth about $2 million at the time, were minted suddenly. The wallet behind the issuance is believed to have deposited large amounts of APEX into Bybit and sold the tokens. In Bybit’s APEX/USDT spot trading pair, APEX began falling around 3:15 p.m. UTC on Sept. 8 and lost about 32% over the following hour. Apex Protocol had not issued any statement in response to the community allegations as of publication.