Atomic Wallet, a decentralized wallet provider, has released a statement about the June exploit that resulted in potential losses of up to $100 million. While the statement is the first major update from the firm since the incident, users are still in the dark about the actual cause.
Atomic Wallet only listed four “probable” causes of the exploit, including a virus on user devices, an infrastructure breach, a man-in-the-middle attack, or malware code injection. However, none of these scenarios have been confirmed as potentially causing massive breaches. Atomic Wallet claimed that less than 0.1% of app users were affected and reiterated that there have been no new confirmed cases after initial reports of the hack.
Questions Raised About the Statement
Questions have been raised about certain aspects of the statement, with some experts asking for clarification on who the mentioned “external auditors” are and where users can find their statements. Others have questioned why Atomic Wallet needed to update its security infrastructure and what happened for it to undertake such a measure. The wide array of probabilities posed by the firm has also been seen as evidence that it is no closer to understanding how the exploit took place.
Atomic Wallet claims that it can see the laundering and mixing of user funds, most of which remain traceable, and it has engaged the help of blockchain analytics firms Chainalysis and Crystal Blockchain. The investigation is still ongoing, but Chainalysis has declined to comment on its work or findings relating to Atomic Wallet. Cointelegraph has contacted Atomic Wallet for clarity on aspects of its statement, and Crystal Blockchain has also been contacted for comment on its findings related to Atomic Wallet.