KuCoin Global CEO, Johnny Lyu in a statement disclosed yesterday about a reported hack lately in details after private keys linked to crypto wallets got exposed and might have affected $150 million in user funds.

He added by saying the findings of the internal security audit report, revealed part of  Bitcoin, ERC-20, and other tokens in KuCoin’s hot wallets were transferred out of the crypto exchange, which contained few parts of the total assets holdings.

“The assets in the cold wallets are safe and unharmed, and the hot wallets have been re-deployed.”

However, Cryptoquant an On-chain data/chart provider for investors had a shred of strong evidence showing the crypto exchange might truly be affected.

“It seems Kucoin got hacked.

“Usually, after being hacked, the $BTC outflow increases rapidly and then becomes zero. Since 20:00 UTC on September 25th, the outflow has continuously been zero,” Cryptoquant tweeted.

It seems #Kucoin got hacked.

Usually, after being hacked, the $BTC outflow increases rapidly and then becomes zero. Since 20:00 UTC on September 25th, the outflow has continuously been zero.

Chart: https://t.co/kHsUEzh92C pic.twitter.com/qgycevVsnT

— CryptoQuant (@cryptoquant_com) September 26, 2020

According to Paolo Ardoino, the Chief Technical Officer at Bitfinex and Tether, the two entities froze $33 million in total.

If the sum of $150 million was hacked, that represents 22% of the lost funds. He said:

“Bitfinex froze 13m Tether USDT on EOS as part of the hack, Tether just froze 20M Tether USDt sitting on this Ethereum address as a precautionary measure.

PSA: re #KuCoin hack@bitfinex froze 13M Tether USDt on EOS as part of the hack@Tether_to just froze 20M Tether USDt sitting on this Ethereum address https://t.co/GYmESH44da as precautionary measure.

Stay safe everyone!

— Paolo Ardoino (@paoloardoino) September 26, 2020

In the official statement, Lyu said KuCoin disclosed it was partnering with major crypto exchanges that included Binance, BitMax OKEx, Huobi, and ByBit. The Kucoin also added it was cooperating with law enforcement agencies on the matter.

At least in the near term, it would make it challenging for hackers to try to move the funds. The CEO said:

“We are in contact with many major crypto exchanges such as Huobi, Binance, OKEx, BitMax, and Bybit, as well as blockchain projects, security agencies, and law enforcement to work on this. Some effective measures have been taken, and we will update with more details soon.”

Investors have been cashing in big time on Tron, a relatively popular digital asset in the crypto-verse. Data feed on Whale Alert, an advanced crypto tracker, revealed that three whales moved about 719,000,000 Trx worth over $20 million transferred from unknown wallets to other unknown wallets.

200,000,000 #TRX (5,627,410 USD) transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet

Tx: https://t.co/jWZpwLR1p4

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) September 26, 2020

220,000,000 #TRX (6,147,722 USD) transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet

Tx: https://t.co/eWAWw7HQ6x

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) September 26, 2020

299,000,000 #TRX (8,400,678 USD) transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet

Tx: https://t.co/YWYl1Ysv9C

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) September 26, 2020

READ: Buying signal, Bitcoin whales with 1000 BTC or more continue to rise

TRON, at the time this report was drafted, traded at $0.02817222 with a daily volume of $1,128 billion. TRX price is up 9.4% in the last 24 hours. It has a circulating supply of 72 Billion coins and a max supply of 101 billion coins.

TRON is a blockchain-based platform that is designed to ensure that its technology is suitable for daily use. Whereas Bitcoin can handle up to six transactions per second, and Ethereum up to 25, TRON states that its network has capacity for 2,000 TPS — 24/7.

This project is best described as a decentralized platform focused on content sharing and entertainment; to this end, one of its biggest acquisitions was the file-sharing service BitTorrent back in 2018.

READ: Binance offers DeFi coders $100,000; DeFi market value hits $8 billion

TRON was founded by Justin Sun, who now serves as CEO of BitTorrent. Educated at Peking University and the University of Pennsylvania, he was recognized by Forbes Asia in its 30 Under 30 series for entrepreneurs.

TRON is one the biggest and most popular blockchains globally, ranked fifteen by market value, has entered a strategic alliance with BitGo, the leader in digital asset financial services, to bring Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) and a newly minted Wrapped Ether to the TRON ecosystem as TRC20 tokens.

READ: U.S public listed company allocates $425 million into Bitcoin

Justin Sun says that TRON users will not encounter high fees like in the Ethereum ecosystem.

“Everyone may now use their BTC/ETH to enjoy all the benefits of the TRON DeFi ecosystem without the high gas fees on Ethereum! JustSwap, a Uniswap alike service on TRON, has achieved $100 million 24-hour volumes since its start and represents TRON’s strong and growing DeFi ecosystem.” 

DeFi cryptos are now a force to reckon with, especially since the era of the worst pandemic known to man came to play.

It’s important to note that DeFi-related assets are gaining traction, as data feeds from Defipulse revealed that Defi based crypto market value had risen from $1 billion in June to  $10.71 billion, at the time this report was written, showing an astronomical gain of 1071%.

READ: Crypto: Why investors are rushing to DeFi assets

Why investors are flocking to DeFI cryptos

Several DeFi crypto assets have had their share of the spotlight in recent times, with cryptos such as Chainlink, Compound, YAM, UniSwap, Cream finance, and Melon gaining investors’ capital inflows.

• Using “Defi” technology, one can build smart contracts with codes that facilitate the actions of intermediaries, including managing and accepting deposits, handling collateralized loans, and liquidating collateral assets as per the terms of the contracts, should their values fluctuate.
• Although DeFi assets, about few days back, had experienced some price corrections due to the rebound of the dollar and overbought indicators, the market seems to show a bullish bias relatively in the midterm, as Defi based investors increase their asset purchases momentarily.
• DeFi crypto owners in some cases can typically receive better interest rates than they would from traditional banks on the basis that lower operating costs is enabled by operating on an automated decentralized network

As a credit to blockchain technology, the contract codes cannot be terminated or manipulated by any entity, and are executed with specific conditions.

READ: Guinness Nigeria finding it hard to refinance its loans due to dollar scarcity

What DeFi means: Defi means “decentralized finance.” By definition, it’s a crypto ecosystem made up of financial apps designed on leading blockchain platforms.

• Defi, in short, is the use of blockchain technologies (including smart contracts, decentralized asset custody, etc.) to replace all “intermediaries” with program codes, therefore maximizing the efficiency of financial services and minimizing costs.
• These digital assets are designed on Ethereum codes, and usually exhibit characteristics that include having protocols and financial smart contracts.