Billionaire investor Mark Cuban loses $870K in crypto in MetaMask wallet hack Billionaire investor Mark Cuban loses $870K in crypto in MetaMask wallet hack
Although Cuban managed to transfer $2 million worth of assets to Coinbase Custody, the hackers made off with ETH, USDC, MATIC, and more.
2 min read
Updated: Sep. 17, 2023 at 9:50 pm UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
Entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban, whose net worth is over $5 billion, fell victim to a hack on the night of Sept. 15. Cuban lost crypto assets worth $870,000 in the attack that compromised his MetaMask wallet, according to a DL News report.
On-chain sleuth Wazz first pointed out the sudden transactions in the MetaMask wallet labeled ‘Mark Cuban 2’ on EtherScan. The wallet had been inactive for over five months.
Cuban confirmed the hack to DL News and said he had lost 5 Ethereum (ETH) tokens, worth around $8,170 at current prices. However, he also lost USD Coin (USDC), Polygon (MATIC), Lido staked Ethereum (stETH), and tokens from SuperRare and Ethereum Name Service.
Most of the proceeds from the hack were still lying in the hacker’s wallet at the time of writing. Cuban managed to transfer around $2 million USDC from the wallet to Coinbase Custody and save most assets from being stolen.
Malicious MetaMask extension
According to Cuban, he is “pretty sure” he downloaded a malicious version of MetaMask, which led to the hack. He told DL News:
“I went on MetaMask for the first time in months. They must have been watching.”
Malicious actors often create fake extensions of MetaMask to hoodwink users into divulging private keys or seed phrases. Once the bad actors gain access, they can easily drain assets.
Cuban said his MetaMask application “crashed a couple times,” after which he locked his non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on OpenSea and moved all his MATIC from the account.
This is not the first time Cuban has suffered crypto losses. When Iron Finance’s TITAN stablecoin collapsed in a supposed rug pull in 2021, Cuban lost an unspecified amount of assets.
Furthermore, Cuban is the latest target in a string of high-profile crypto hacks and scams. Crypto exchange CoinEx reportedly lost $27 million in a hack on Sept. 12.
Last week, Ethereum co-founder Vitalike Buterin’s X account was hacked and used to promote a fishing link. The scammers stole around $700,000 worth of NFTs and crypto from the victims.
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Author 
Monika Ghosh
In 2020, Monika immersed herself in crypto, maintaining skepticism yet firmly believing blockchain could address key issues like financial disparity and transparency. A book-lover, she's also a passionate food enthusiast.
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Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain platform that enables the creation of smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps).
USD Coin
$1.00001
USD Coin (USDC) is a stablecoin fully backed by the US dollar and developed by the CENTRE consortium.
Polygon
$0.45296
Polygon, a prominent layer 2 scaling solution on Ethereum, has emerged as a multifaceted and scalable platform, enhancing the Ethereum ecosystem’s capabilities.
Lido Staked ETH
$3,603.48
stETH is a token that represents staked ether in Lido, combining the value of initial deposit + staking rewards.
MetaMask is an extension for accessing Ethereum enabled distributed applications or “dApps” in your normal browser.
Mark Cuban is an American billionaire entrepreneur, television personality, and media proprietor whose net worth is an estimated $4.7 billion, according to Forbes, and ranked No.