On April 24, KuCoin notified its users of a security breach that occurred on the “kucoincom” Twitter handle. The breach lasted for about 45 minutes, during which fraudulent activities were carried out on the social media account, leading to asset losses for a few users. Nevertheless, the exchange verified that the losses endured were insignificant, totaling roughly $22,628 in USDT. Furthermore, to address the concerns of the affected users, KuCoin declared its plan to compensate them for their losses.
The Attack on KuCoin
The official announcement from the company confirms that their Twitter account was hacked, but they were able to swiftly regain control of it. Further investigation has revealed 22 transactions involving ETH and BTC were linked to the fraudulent activity. In order to prevent any further harm to their users, the KuCoin team is currently analyzing and blocking any suspicious addresses.
Additionally, the team will be implementing additional security measures to ensure the safety of their social media accounts. While there has been speculation that the Twitter takeover may have been an inside job, this theory has yet to be confirmed or denied. Currently, like many other crypto exchanges, KuCoin is facing increased regulatory scrutiny in the United States.
Impact on KuCoin Token
The impact of social media on the KuCoin native token has been observed to be minimal, as KCS only experienced a modest 1.4% drop in trading value, currently standing at $8.02 at the time of writing. However, KCS has seen a decline of 11% over the last seven days, in alignment with the general market trend.
The exchange token has undergone a significant drop of 72% from it’s all-time high of $28.83 in December 2021. Despite the cryptocurrency markets remaining relatively stable over the past 25 hours, the total capitalization is currently estimated to be around $1.21 trillion. Regrettably, the markets have decreased by 9% since reaching their peak in mid-April of 2023.