Hackers have stolen digital assets worth around $160 million from crypto trading firm Wintermute, according to a tweet from its CEO on Tuesday. CEO Evgeny Gaevoy posted on Twitter that the company was experiencing an ongoing hack that had drained the funds from its decentralized finance (DeFi) operations.
Market-making firms like Wintermute play a crucial role in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, providing liquidity to exchanges by holding large amounts of different cryptocurrencies in reserve in order to instantly fulfill large buy or sell orders.
The sector is little-regulated and victims of crime rarely have recourse.
Gaevoy said that the company remains solvent and still holds more than twice the value of the stolen funds in equity. Clients that had a market-making agreement with Wintermute would not lose funds, but the service would be disrupted for a few days while the problem was addressed, the CEO said.