Livecoin, the Russian crypto exchange, has halted operations in the aftermath of an alleged hacker attack on Christmas day.
It has been reported according to Livecoin’s main page that the exchange has suffered a “carefully planned attack” causing the platform to lose control of all of its servers, backend, and nodes.
However, the exchange urged its customers to stop using its services including deposits, trading, and API.
Livecoin’s main page reads:
“We were not able to stop our service in time. Our news channels were compromised as well. At the moment, we partially control frontend, and so we’re able to place this announcement.”
Likewise, Livecoin said that it’s working hard to retrieve control of its servers, promising to provide a security update “in the next few days.” The exchange also claimed that it is cooperating with “local police authorities.”
According to some reports, the incident took place on the night between December 23 and December 24. Hackers have apparently managed to take over Livecoin’s infrastructure and modify the prices on the exchange to abnormally high values.
A co-founder of YellowBlock, a crypto educational website, known as “Cryptorangutang” said that Bitcoin (BTC) exceeded $320,000 per coin on the platform on December 24.
He wrote on Twitter:
“Whatever is going on, I don’t recommend trying to make $ on this, very likely you will get your funds stuck.”
Moreover, according to comments of exchange users on Livecoin’s unofficial Telegram group, the exchange is not operating at the time of publishing despite the exchange having briefly opened a login page.
Thus, some Reddit users also suggested that Livecoin’s “hack” could be a classic exit scam.
Source: Cointelegraph