BitMart hack
About $196M was stolen from the BitMart exchange in December 2021 after attackers obtained a private key controlling two hot wallets (~$100M on Ethereum, ~$96M on BNB Chain). Funds were laundered via 1inch and Tornado Cash; BitMart reimbursed affected users.
Also known as: BitMart, BitMart hack
Summary
On December 4, 2021, the cryptocurrency exchange BitMart lost roughly $196 million when attackers compromised a private key that controlled two of its hot wallets — about $100 million in assets on Ethereum and about $96 million on BNB Chain, spanning 20+ tokens. [1][2]
Laundering and response
Security firm PeckShield described a "transfer-out, swap, and wash" pattern: the attacker used the 1inch DEX aggregator to swap stolen tokens into ETH, then deposited the proceeds into the Tornado Cash mixer. BitMart's CEO said the breach was caused by a stolen private key, that cold-wallet assets were unaffected, and that the exchange would reimburse affected users from its own funds. [1][2]
Bracketed numbers refer to the numbered sources listed below.
Sources (2)
See also
Gala Games exploitTokensOn May 20, 2024 an attacker abused a privileged minter account on the GALA token contract to mint 5 billion GALA (≈$200M+ nominal) and dumped ~600M of them for ~$22M of ETH before Gala froze the address. Gala Games called it an internal access-control failure; the attacker later returned the ~$22M.
HEX / PulseChain (Richard Heart)ProjectsCrypto projects (HEX, PulseChain, PulseX) created by Richard Heart (Richard Schueler). In July 2023 the U.S. SEC sued him for offering unregistered securities that raised $1B+ and for allegedly misappropriating ~$12M for luxury goods (including a 555-carat diamond). A court dismissed the case in 2024 for lack of U.S. jurisdiction; there was no finding of wrongdoing and Heart denies the allegations.
This page was last updated on Jun 15, 2026. View revision history.
