BitKeep Wallet Drained of $1M After Hacker Exploits Swap Feature

A hacker has drained $1 million from BitKeep by exploiting its swap feature and the company says that it will reimburse the victims out of pocket. This October has been particularly rough, recording a massive spike in DeFi hacks and exploits.

The BitKeep wallet has been attacked, with a hacker draining approximately $1 million from it by exploiting the swap feature. Blockchain security company PeckShield was the first to bring attention to the hack, asking users to follow a series of steps to ensure they were safe.

BitKeep provided its own update on Oct. 18, saying that the development team had managed to contain the emergency. It also noted that the attack happened on the BNB Chain. This is not even the first time that this chain was compromised this month after an attack exploited it for $100 million in the first week of October.

The wallet provider has outlined a series of measures to prevent further damages and bring the hacker to justice. They have suspended the BitKeep Swap service to make sure that no other security issues exist and are also working with security agencies to track down the hacker.

The company will reimburse users who lost funds, but specifics of the plan have yet to be released. BitKeep will offer more details as it learns more about the attack.

Swap features and bridges common attack point

BitKeep is a crypto wallet that supports multiple chains and is often used in the DeFi space. Users can trade their tokens across chains, which they find convenient for DeFi use.

However, swap functionality can be vulnerable to attacks and this is not the first time that a hacker has exploited a swap. Most recently, Transit Swap was attacked in early October.

Bridges have been subject to many attacks over the years, and 2022 has seen many such attacks — including Wormhole and Ronin. These have been increasingly prime targets for bad actors.

DeFi hacks shoot up in 2022

Hacking thefts have really added up this year. Over $3 billion has already been stolen from the market, according to blockchain security firm Chainalysis. October alone saw $718 million stolen from DeFi protocols across 11 hacks. Chainalysis has also pointed out that DeFi was responsible for a growth in hacks.

CertiK has said that a good number of the attackers in 2021 were due to centralization issues. This year, the theme seems to be bridge attacks, with Harmony’s Horizon bridge and the Nomad bridge suffering big losses.