Crypto exchange Coinsbuy loses $8 million in coordinated two-blockchain attack
- An attacker drained $8.07 million from Coinsbuy across TRON and Ethereum in under an hour on Aug. 9, with blockchain researchers linking both chains into a single operation via cross-chain swapper Bridgers.
- Roughly 79% of stolen funds moved through instant exchange FixedFloat across 50 single-use addresses. ChangeNOW froze a six-figure sum, and approximately $542,000 in ETH has not moved.
- Coinsbuy refilled the drained wallets within 24 hours, suggesting private keys were not compromised, but the exchange has not explained how the withdrawal path was accessed.
Crypto exchange Coinsbuy lost more than $8 million in a coordinated attack across TRON and Ethereum on Aug. 9, according to onchain data reviewed by blockchain security researchers.
The attacker began with a 5 USDT transaction before draining eight TRON wallets of 6.04 million of the dollar-pegged stablecoin in about an hour. On Ethereum, three wallets were simultaneously emptied of 1.89 million USDT and 77 ETH, which was swapped to ETH via 1inch through a wallet created the same day.
Onchain records show the two chains were linked through cross-chain swapper Bridgers, whose Ethereum payout contract sent funds directly into the Ethereum swap wallet, connecting what appeared to be separate operations into a single incident.
The attacker routed some 79% of the stolen funds through instant exchange FixedFloat using roughly 50 single-use addresses. ChangeNOW separately froze a six-figure sum after being contacted by Specter Investigations.
Around 282 ETH, roughly $542,000, across five addresses remains unmoved.