C-CEX Crypto Exchange Experiences Hack, Loses All DOGE and LTC Funds

C-CEX Just Got Hacked and Lost All DOGE and LTC

Cryptocurrency exchange C-CEX experienced a hacking attack earlier today. The attackers were successfully able to withdraw all Litecoin (LTC) and Dogecoin (DOGE) from company servers.

The exchange has acknowledged the loss and is asking customers to avoid sending DOGE and LTC to the exchange’s old addresses:

“We ask everyone to report information about hackers. We are open for cooperation with the authorities,” wrote a spokesperson for the exchange.

We regret to inform that there was a breach discovered by hackers in our withdrawal procedures.
DOGE and LTC balances stolen.
Important! Do not send DOGE or LTC to old addresses! You need to get new address for new deposits!
Full info: https://t.co/0jGVw77JoX

— C-CEX.com (@CryptoCurrEncyX) September 9, 2018

C-CEX, in a statement on BitcoinTalk, claimed that “there was a breach discovered by the hackers in our withdrawal procedures:

“We regret to inform that there was a breach discovered by hackers in our withdrawal procedures. They was able to repeat same withdrawals several times. Our DOGE and LTC completely depleted. As DOGE and LTC withdrawals of current user balances are no more possible – we transfered them to “Hold” balances. So now you can see your past DOGE and LTC balance as “DOGE on hold” and “LTC on hold””

C-CEX also added that the exploit has already been fixed.

C-CEX is posting lots of information about the hackers online, including the IP addressees and email addresses used by the hackers.

“They used lots of different accounts to perform this attack,” according to C-CEX.

C-CEX is far from the world’s largest exchange. Over the past 24 hours, the exchange has reported just over 26 BTC ($160,000 USD) of trading activity. The most popular pairs on the exchange include Pabyosi Coin (PCS/BTC), Forkcoin (FORK/BTC) and WINCOIN (WC/BTC).

The exchange also has a DOGE/LTC pair and a DOGE/BTC pair, among others. DOGE and LTC were popular pairs on the platform, although they still accounted for less than 5% to 10% of total trading volume on the exchange.

C-CEX is reportedly based in Germany. The exchange has previously come under fire for the way it manages user funds, and it doesn’t have a good reputation online. Trustpilot gives the site a 2.9/10 rating, for example, while CryptoCompare gives it a 1.9 rating with 38 reviews. As CryptoCompare explains:

“The exchange has come under criticism for its handling of user funds with a number of complaints from users in respect to its security features.”

Ultimately, cryptocurrency exchanges get hacked frequently. However, it’s been a long time since a major exchange was hacked for a significant amount of money. It seems unlikely the C-CEX attackers made off with more than a few thousand dollars in this attack, and C-CEX was a relatively insignificant exchange in terms of trading volume – even in the LTC and DOGE communities.