The widely-used crypto gambling website Stake was hacked today and roughly $40 million in digital currency was stolen, as reported by blockchain security experts. Stake, which has the backing of rap star Drake, had several unusual transactions early Monday morning Eastern Time that transferred about $16 million in Ethereum, Tether, USDC">USD CoinUSDC">, and DAI off the platform, according to the cybersecurity company Cyvers which first announced this on Twitter. An additional $25 million was also removed through the Binance Smart Chain and Polygon networks based on reporting by the pseudonymous crypto investigator ZachXBT.
Blockchain security sources said the transfers seemed “suspicious” if Stake was not under maintenance. Later, Stake confirmed that the wallet transfers were “unauthorized,” meaning someone accessed the company’s wallet and took the funds.
Stake tweeted “Three hours ago, unauthorized transactions were made from Stake’s ETH/BSC hot wallets. We are investigating and will get the wallets up as soon as they’re completely re-secured. User funds are safe.” A “hot wallet” refers to a cryptocurrency wallet connected to the internet. These wallets can be vulnerable to hacking and other issues.
Billionaire Stake founder Ed Craven posted on Twitter that “Stake keeps a small portion of its crypto reserves in hot wallets at any given moment for these very reasons” and that “all affected wallets should be operational shortly.”
Cyvers shared on Twitter an address that received the stolen crypto. They noted that the stablecoins taken from Stake were converted into Ethereum, the second-largest digital currency.
Taylor Monahan, Lead Product Manager at MetaMask and a security expert, remarked on Twitter that the “Stake hackers [are] looking quite methodical,” posting an image of the suspected hackers’ wallet transfers so far.
The Stake was created in 2017 by Australian billionaire Ed Craven. It has endorsements from various celebrities, most prominently Drake. According to the Financial Times, Drake signed a $100 million per year endorsement deal with Stake in 2022.
The newspaper said Stake had gross gaming revenues of $2.6 billion last year based on company accounts, making Stake one of the world’s biggest online gambling companies.
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