Key Insights
- Mark Cuban fell victim to a hack that resulted in the loss of approximately $900,000 worth of cryptocurrency from one of his hot wallets.
- Initially suspected to be a strategic asset movement by Cuban, he later confirmed accessing MetaMask after months of inactivity.
Billionaire investor and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban found himself in the midst of a crypto hack when approximately $900,000 worth of cryptocurrencies vanished from one of his hot wallets.
The incident unfolded with a series of intriguing twists, leaving both the crypto community and Cuban himself perplexed.
The first alert about the breach came from an independent blockchain investigator known as Wazz, who detected suspicious activity in Cuban’s wallet.
What made this discovery particularly puzzling was that Cuban hadn’t interacted with this wallet for about five months, raising questions about how the breach could have occurred unnoticed.
Lmao, did Mark Cuban's wallet just get drained?
Wallet inactive for 160 days and all assets just moved pic.twitter.com/vWnMZFyHB5
— Wazz (@WazzCrypto) September 15, 2023
Mark Cuban’s hot wallet hacked: What happened?
A dive into the transaction history on Etherscan revealed a series of asset withdrawals within a 10-minute timeframe. Assets like USD Coin, Tether (USDT), and Lido Staked Ether (stETH) were siphoned from the wallet.
However, the situation took an unexpected turn when an additional $2 million worth of USDC was withdrawn and transferred to a different wallet. This led some to speculate that Cuban might have initiated these transfers himself, perhaps in an attempt to secure his assets.
Hours later, Cuban spoke to DL News and disclosed that he had accessed MetaMask, a crypto wallet interface, for the first time in months. He vaguely hinted that the hackers might have been monitoring his activity, waiting for the right moment to strike.
Cuban’s subsequent move of transferring any remaining assets to Coinbase Custody seemed to confirm his involvement in the $2 million USDC transaction.
The crypto community reacted swiftly, with some members pointing out that Cuban’s actions might have inadvertently triggered the security breach. Speculations ranged from Cuban mistakenly signing a malicious transaction to the possibility that his private key had been compromised, given the direct withdrawal of funds from the wallet.
Read also! What is a Cold Wallet?
This incident isn’t the first time Mark Cuban has faced challenges in the crypto market. In June 2021, he incurred losses in what he described as a “rug pull.” This occurred when the algorithmic stablecoin project Iron Finance collapsed amid what appeared to be a bank run, resulting in an undisclosed amount of financial setback for the billionaire investor.
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