Crypto.com—the popular cryptocurrency exchange that spent $175 million to emblazon its brand logo on UFC fight kits for the next 10 years—has allegedly been hacked.
The Singapore-based exchange announced Sunday that there were a “small number of users reporting suspicious activity on their accounts” and that the exchange would be pausing withdrawals while their team investigates the incident.
The next day, the company tweeted that it has restored withdrawal services for users and that “all funds are safe.” The statement was reiterated by Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek, who added that his company had strengthened its security infrastructure in response to the “incident.”
However, blockchain security and analytics company Peckshield revealed that Crypto.com actually lost approximately $15 million in ETH (the native cryptocurrency for the Ethereum blockchain). Peckshield also noted that half the stolen funds were laundered through Tornado Cash, a service that obscures crypto transactions in order to make them more difficult to trace.
Peckshield subsequently told respected outlet Decrypt that the true scale of the damage is “definitely worse.”
Crypto.com is the fourth largest centralized crypto exchange in the world, according to CoinGecko. The company has spent more than $1.4 billion in nearly a dozen sports sponsorship deals across Formula One, hockey, basketball, football, MMA and esports. The crypto exchange spent $700 million to rename the Staples Center—home of the LA Lakers—to Crypto.com arena, marking the most a corporate sponsor has agreed to pay on a stadium naming rights.
Most recently, the company faced ridicule over a dramatic TV commercial featuring Matt Damon that seemed to compare crypto investments with space travel.
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