Gate Hack
What happened
On April 21, 2018, Gate.io was reported to have suffered a private-key compromise that led to the theft of cryptocurrency valued at about $234.34 million at the time. Later reporting connected the incident to North Korean actors and said it had not been publicly disclosed at the time of the breach.
Reporting and the related DOJ complaint describe an exchange-wallet compromise in which malware led to unauthorized access to private keys. The public sources reviewed do not establish a smart-contract vulnerability.
Case & protocol details
How it happened
Contemporary reporting based on on-chain research attributed the April 2018 theft to the compromise of private keys controlling Gate.io wallets. The reported asset list included 10,777.94 BTC, 218,790 ETH, 99,999,000 DOGE, 3,043,268 XRP, 11,000 LTC, 3,783 ZEC, and 175,866 ETC, totaling about $234.34 million at the time. A 2020 U.S.
Department of Justice forfeiture complaint independently describes a late-2018 exchange intrusion in which malware gave attackers unauthorized access to private keys and records the same asset totals, although it names the victim only as Exchange 1.
Evidence & learning
Attack pattern
Compare incidents →Sources and on-chain records
- analysis U.S. Department of Justice: 113 Virtual Currency Accounts forfeiture complaint justice.gov
- analysis Website reference mobile.twitter.com
- analysis Website reference twitter.com
- analysis CryptoSlate: ZachXBT calls out Gate.io for keeping 2018 hack under wraps cryptoslate.com
- analysis CryptoSlate: North Korean hackers move funds from Gate.io 2018 hack cryptoslate.com
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