Exchanges freeze $2M in crypto stolen from Atomic Wallet in June Exchanges freeze $2M in crypto stolen from Atomic Wallet in June
The intercepted amount is just a fraction the $100 million originally stolen.
2 min read
Updated: Oct. 21, 2023 at 12:51 am UTC
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On Oct. 19, Atomic Wallet announced that several cryptocurrency exchanges have frozen funds suspected to be stolen from user wallets during an unauthorized transaction activity reported this summer.
Atomic Wallet acknowledged that it began to receive reports on June 3 from users who reported unauthorized transactions. Among other measures, Atomic Wallet began to work with blockchain analytics firms to trace and freeze suspicious transfers.
Specifically, Atomic worked with Chainalysis and Crystal Blockchain to trace funds across various chains, bridges, and coin mixers. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Avalanche, TRON, and various other blockchains and tokens were named in the latest report.
After the funds were traced, Atomic Wallet worked with various crypto exchanges to freeze deposited funds. The company wrote that it “extends heartfelt gratitude” to the exchanges that collaborated to freeze funds linked to reported transactions. It added that those exchanges “were pivotal in mitigating the impact of the incident.”
Atomic Wallet did not say which cryptocurrency exchanges it worked with to block the transfers, and it does not appear that any exchanges have identified themselves.
Frozen amount could be 2% of all stolen funds
Atomic Wallet did not state how much crypto was stolen during the June thefts. Instead, it said that the incident affected less than 0.1% of its users and added that no new thefts have been reported since the initial attacks on June 3.
Unofficial estimates provide some indication of the true total. The analytics firm Elliptic estimated shortly after the attack that at least $100 million had been stolen, meaning that the $2 million frozen is likely just a small amount of all stolen funds.
Atomic Wallet did not describe any process for recovering the funds or returning crypto to the affected users. The wallet provider instead stated that it is currently working with law enforcement and can only provide some details to the public.
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Author 
Mike Dalton
Before transitioning to crypto writing in 2018, Mike studied library and information sciences. Currently, he resides on Canada's West Coast.
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