Published
7 months ago on
September 16, 2023
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Billionaire investor, TV personality, and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, had one of his crypto wallets hacked, with the attacker siphoning off nearly $900,000 worth of crypto.
Cuban confirmed the hack on Friday but added that he doesn’t know how the hacker managed to gain access to his hot wallet.
Mark Cuban’s Hot Wallet Hacked
The hack was first spotted by Wazz, an independent blockchain investigator, on the 15th of September at around 8 pm UTC. The blockchain investigator flagged suspicious activity after he noted that one of Cuban’s hot wallets, which had been inactive for months, suddenly had all its assets moved.
“Did Mark Cuban’s wallet just get drained? Wallet inactive for 160 days, and all assets just moved.”
The transaction history on Etherscan showed that the hacker suddenly withdrew several batches of assets within minutes. These included USD Coin (USDC), Tether (USDT), and Lido Staked Ether (stETH). To complicate matters, a further $2 million worth of USDC was withdrawn from the wallet, called “Mark Cuban 2,” was withdrawn and sent to another wallet. Additionally, the hacker also dumped ETH and MATIC after making a deposit on Coinbase.
“Address on Matic was a Coinbase deposit address End of an era, But the address on ETH swapped all USDC for $ETH so it’s a very different behavior. Still possible he was drained on ETH and saved his Matic bags.”
Cuban Confirms Hack
Mark Cuban confirmed the hack a few hours later, stating that he had gone on MetaMask for the first time in months, suggesting that the hacker or hackers may have been waiting for an opportunity to make their move. He added that he may have downloaded a fake version of MetaMask with something malicious, suggesting he may have become the latest in the crypto space to fall victim to a phishing attack.
Cuban also added that he had transferred his remaining assets to Coinbase Custody, confirming it was he who moved the $2 million worth of USDC.
Community Speculates How Hack Happened
The crypto community was quick to speculate how the hack occurred, given Cuban had not shared too many details about it. Many stated that contrary to hackers watching Cuban’s activity, Cuban may have done something that led to the security breach. Most seemed to suggest that the billionaire investor may have mistakenly signed off on a malicious transaction. However, others stated that his private keys may have been compromised, given that the funds were directly transferred out of his wallet.
“He may have signed something he shouldn’t have, anyways such a big amount should have been held in his cold wallet and not on MetaMask. Or even a multi-sig with two people he trusts.”
This is not the first time Cuban has suffered losses in the crypto market. In June 2021, the billionaire investor lost an unspecified amount of capital to a rug pull. This occurred after an algorithmic stablecoin project called Iron Finance collapsed. He has also had a turbulent relationship with the crypto space. Cuban had famously stated that he would rather have a banana than Bitcoin. However, his views have changed since, and he has spoken in favor of cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and non-fungible tokens.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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