On-chain sleuth ZachXBT reported on Christmas night that several Trust Wallets had been drained. Trust Wallet reported a security incident affecting its browser extension version 2.68. Trust Wallet warned users to upgrade to version 2.69 and disable their 2.68 version wallets.
Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao, or CZ, said that about $7 million was affected in the hack and that Trust Wallet would cover losses. For some Trust Wallet users, Christmas turned into a setback, as hackers managed to steal around $7 million from user wallets. Users of Version 2.68 of Trust Wallet Browser extension were affected; mobile-only and other browser extension versions were unaffected, as per Trust Wallet.
Changpeng CZ Zhao noted that the funds were “SAFU”, slang for Secure Asset Funds for Users. The Binance co-founder is also the owner of Trust Wallet. CZ said that users who lost funds in the hack will be compensated in full.
Presently, version 2.69 of Trust Wallet is available to download on Google Chrome Web Store. The update was released on December 26th, as shown on Chrome Web Store. Lookonchain, an on-chain analyst, highlighted that the attacker had transferred $4.25 million to ChangeNOW, FixedFloat, KuCoin, and HTX.
ChangeNOW and FixedFloat are non-KYC, non-custodial centralized exchanges. KuCoin and HTX are centralized custodial exchanges with KYC requirements. Non-KYC exchanges could offer the hacker a greater level of anonymity than KYC exchanges.
This has also fueled tensions among traders amid the Trust Wallet related event. The hacker held roughly $1.2 million in various cryptos, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), BNB etc. According to the Google Chrome Web Store, the Trust Wallet Chrome extension has 1 million downloads. The Play Store, the official Android application store, Trust Wallet has over 50 million downloads.
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