New Zealand police are investigating the hack of cryptocurrency exchange Cryptopia, which resulted in “significant losses” that some estimate could amount to more than US$3.5 million.
Christchurch company Cryptopia, which has been said[1] to be operating New Zealand’s largest cryptocurrench exchange, shut down its website and exchange services on January 14 citing a security breach.
Police proceeded to a physical scene examination at the company’s headquarters building on January 16 and have commenced a forensic digital investigation of the company after an “alleged unauthorized transaction” of “significant value of cryptocurrency” occurred.
Government agencies, including New Zealand police and the High Tech Crimes Units, are currently investigating the matter as “a major crime.” Police said[2] in a statement On January 15 that they were also liaising with relevant partner agencies overseas.
Tweets from Whale Alert pointed out[3] to 19,391 ether (ETH), worth nearly US$2.44 million[4], and around 48 million centrality (CENNZ) tokens, worth about US$1.18 million[5], being transferred from Cryptopia to unknown wallets on January 13.
It is unclear at this time if those funds were effectively moved by the hacker with police stating[6] on January 16 that they were “not yet in position to say how much cryptocurrency is involved, other than it is significant amount,” adding that it was still “too early for us to draw any conclusions and police will keep an open mind on all possibilities while we gather the information we need.”
“We are dealing with a complex situation and we are unable to put a timeframe on how long the investigation may take,” New Zealand police said in a statement[7] on January 16. “A priority for police
