VeChain was hacked 1.1 billion VET from buyback wallet; the price immediately decreased by 10%

By Emma 12/14/19 3:56 AM

The VeChain Foundation (VF) made a public statement that about 1.1 billion VET tokens ($ 6.4 million) were stolen from the buyback address.

An initial announcement on the Foundation buy-back address. https://t.co/hohKF4J0fE

— VeChain Foundation (@vechainofficial) December 13, 2019

A hacker hacked the buyback address (0xD802A148f38aBa4759879c33E8d04deb00cFB92b) of the VeChain Foundation, and 1.1 billion VET tokens vanished without a trace. All hacker-related addresses are tagged and are being closely monitored. According to the announcement, VeChain has contacted all exchanges (that listed VET) to “monitor, blacklist, and freeze any funds coming from the hacker address.”

Vechain wallet address hacked | Screenshot.

An investigation is underway to determine how hackers can steal these funds.
The original cause was identified as an error caused by internal manpower. An individual in VeChain’s financial group has created an address for buyback tokens without following The Standard Procedure of the Foundation. VeChain stated that its audit team was unable to detect the flaw because of a “wrong process” error.

The case has been reported to law enforcement in Singapore, where Vechain registers its headquarter (however they mostly work in Shanghai, China). So far, no claims have been made by the authorities and the story remains unclear. VeChain also said that they have called on the Whitehat community (white-hat hacker) and vechainstats.com to help with containing this problem.

VeChain was riding high on positive media after the project has been driven by China’s “focus on blockchain” policy. Vechain, NEO, TRON are the three most prominent Chinese projects currently on the crypto market.

All that #VeChain does! Partnered with Chinese automaker #BYD #TOYOTA…. Guess who their biggest investors are? Nobody less then the notorious WARREN BUFFET and his FRGGN investment CLAN! ??? For those who didn’t know, #VET will be FCKN HUGE! ❤️?? #chinainvestment #chinacoin pic.twitter.com/dEHwsD4yhF

— THE SPIRITUAL GROOVE (@eszteca) December 11, 2019

The hack accidentally lost the expectations of investors and the Chinese government, from now on the group will have to rebuild its reputation to regain the trust of everyone. However, it will take a lot of time and effort.

Some prominent crypto exchange hacks

Most recently, Korea’s Upbit exchange was hacked, resulting in nearly $ 50 million in stolen ETH funds, AZCoin News reported in late November. The funds are being monitored closely by Binance and other exchanges. However, hacking into the team address is relatively rare. Especially the cause comes from people. This makes the VeChain hack more attention.

In 2019, in addition to the Upbit hack, there were six other exchange hacks that were recorded including BiTrue ($ 4.2 million), DragonEx ($ 7 million), Bithumb ($ 13 million), Cryptopia ($ 16 million) ), Bitpoint ($ 28 million), Binance ($ 40.7 million), according to AZCoin News.

The response of Community and VET price

The community is quite calm about the hack news. Part of the reason is that VF was honest, quick to report the case and sought timely solutions to limit damage. More important than the fundamentals of VeChain is now stronger than ever.

You told us the story now show us that you can handle this swiftly and promptly without too much damage to the price from the panicking sellers .? good administration to pick it up so soon now show us your risk management and damage control .

— Crypto Master Preneur (@mysttory) December 13, 2019

Many traders believe this is an opportunity to buy VET at a cheaper price.

I see every small dump as good buying opportunities, let them hate . #utilitymaximalist

— Sweettitan (@F50749099) December 13, 2019

However, there is a concern that the cause of the incident is due to internal factors.

VF’s CEO has affirmed that he will be responsible for what happened and will endeavor to monitor the improvement plan for internal control in the future.

It has been unfortunate incident but we have to learn from it. As the CEO, I am ultimately accountable for what happened, and I will dedicate myself to monitor the improvement plan for internal control going forward. https://t.co/vmMvXDGcsq

— Sunny LU, VeChain (@sunshinelu24) December 13, 2019

Vechain (VET) prices fell about 10% immediately after the news was released but all is okay when the community is not panic and the price is showing signs of a rally.