On June 1st, London-based crypto exchange GateHub was hacked, resulting in the theft of more than 23 million XRP. Now, thanks to the intervention of fellow exchange ChangeNow, some of those stolen funds have been recovered.

According to GateHub’s most recent investigation update, the exchange was alerted to the intrusion after a marked increase in API calls was detected.

Of the more than 18,000 accounts “potentially affected” by the suspicious API calls, GateHub identified 103 of its customers’ XRP Ledger wallets that had funds stolen during the attack.

Although GateHub itself did not disclose how many XRP were stolen, an analysis of the hack performed by XRPForensics estimates that the hackers were able to make off with more than 23.2 million XRP worth more than US$10 million at the time of the theft.

More than 13 million of the stolen XRP have already been transferred to various exchanges in order to be cashed out, including AlfaCashier, Binance, Changelly, ChangeNow, Exmo, HitBTC, Huobi, and KuCoin.

XRPForensics notes that none of the receiving exchanges were complicit in the theft.

ChangeNow to the Rescue!

The hack is currently under investigation, but there is some good news. ChangeNow, one of the exchanges used by the hackers to cash out the stolen XRP, have actively been assisting in the investigation and have managed to recover some of the stolen funds.

In an official statement published yesterday on its blog, the exchange – which had taken measures to blacklist all of the addresses associated with the hack – described how it had been able to stop “a solid number of XRP exchanges” that the hackers tried to facilitate on its platform.

In all, the hackers tried to cash out 2.5 million XRP on ChangeNow, and while the exchange wasn’t able to stop every transaction, they did manage to recover 500,000 XRP.

According to the statement:

All stolen exchange deposits retained during the hack have been frozen and are stored on a secure cold wallet. We will be sure to return the funds to GateHub.

While this is good news, ChangeNow regrets not being able to do more and has vowed to improve its risk management system and forge closer ties with other exchanges, investigating officials, and the crypto community as a whole.

For the future, our ultimate goal is to stop at least 90% of all stolen funds that are being exchanged through our service.

If you have any information about the hack or the stolen funds, please reach out to GateHub directly either via the exchange’s website or social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter).

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