{"id":32969,"date":"2023-07-08T05:53:04","date_gmt":"2023-07-08T09:53:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/markets\/crypto\/multichain-breach-forces-circle-to-freeze-63-million-in-usdc\/"},"modified":"2023-07-08T05:53:06","modified_gmt":"2023-07-08T09:53:06","slug":"multichain-breach-forces-circle-to-freeze-63-million-in-usdc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=32969","title":{"rendered":"Multichain Breach Forces Circle to Freeze $63 Million in USDC"},"content":{"rendered":"
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USD Coin (USDC)<\/strong>\u00a0issuer\u00a0Circle<\/strong>\u00a0has frozen $63 million belonging to three wallet addresses associated with the hack of the cross-chain bridge platform\u00a0Multichain<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In a Friday tweet, security firm\u00a0PeckShield\u00a0<\/strong>revealed that Circle has frozen $27.65 million, $30.1 million, and $5.5 million in three wallet addresses that received a significant outflow of funds from Multichain after the security breach.<\/p>\n

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The intervention came after $126 million worth of digital assets was mysteriously transferred from Multichain\u2019s bridge deployments on Fantom, Moonriver, and Dogechain to various third-party wallets.<\/p>\n

Multichain\u00a0confirmed the security incident<\/a>\u00a0in a late Thursday tweet, revealing that they are conducting an investigation into the incident and expressed uncertainty about the cause.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They advised all users to stop using Multichain services and revoke any contract approvals associated with the platform.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The lockup assets on the Multichain MPC address have been moved to an unknown address abnormally. The team is not sure what happened and is currently investigating.”<\/p>\n

The team further stated that all bridge transactions will remain suspended on their respective chains, without providing a specific timeline for the resumption of services.<\/p>\n

Formerly known as\u00a0Anyswap<\/strong>, Multichain enables users to transfer their cryptocurrency assets across different blockchain networks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is not the first time Multichain has made headlines this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the end of May, rumors were spreading throughout the cryptoverse that the Multichain team\u00a0has been arrested by the Chinese police.<\/p>\n

Additionally, there are rumors that the Chinese authorities may have gained control over the network\u2019s hardware and cold wallet, although these allegations were never confirmed.<\/p>\n

Following these controversies,\u00a0Binance<\/strong>\u00a0announced that it will cease to facilitate\u00a0deposits and withdrawals of several cross-chain bridge tokens associated with the Multichain project.<\/p>\n

Hackers Steal More Than $200M in Q2, 2023<\/h2>\n

The Multichain incident comes as hackers have\u00a0stolen more than $204 million\u00a0worth of digital assets in various hacks and scams in the decentralized finance space during the second quarter of 2023, according to a report from crypto portfolio app De.Fi.<\/p>\n

The report claimed that the number of incidents in the DeFi world increased by almost 7 times compared to the same quarter last year.<\/p>\n

Despite a higher frequency of incidents, the total amount lost during the quarter was significantly lower than in the same quarter last year when a whopping $40 billion was lost to scammers and hackers.<\/p>\n

In total, hackers stole over $667 million during the first six months of 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The worst month of the first half of the year was March, with $240 million lost and $178 million recovered. February followed in second place, with $156 million lost and only $30,000 recovered<\/p>\n

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