Investigators scramble to find $ 97 million stolen from Japanese crypto exchange

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Huge crypto heists seem to be all the rage these days.

On Thursday, the Tokyo Liquid crypto exchange announced that it had been hacked and that someone had taken around $ 97 million in various cryptocurrencies.

Investigators from London-based crypto theft tracking firm Elliptic are already on the case and have frozen around $ 16.3 million in stolen Ethereum, Agence France-Presse reports. But it should be noted that massive crypto heists are becoming more and more common. You might wonder if crypto exchanges, blockchain technology, and the whole package are in fact as secure and steadfast as Bitcoin advocates and brethren have been chanting for years.

Candy, baby

For example, you may have heard of the hacker last week who stole around $ 600 million worth of various cryptocurrencies from a brokerage firm called The Poly Network. Elliptic was also in the business for the theft, but the hacker actually decided to return the money after a loud tweet from The Poly Network scared them off.

This one took an unusual turn. After a few bizarre messages and question-and-answer style tweets, the hacker ended up sending back all the crypto except the $ 500,000 that The Poly Network insisted they keep as a token of gratitude and are now working at The Poly Network as Chief Security Advisor.

Tokyo follow-up

Of course, we probably won’t see the same kinds of twists and turns with the liquid heist. There’s no cutesy back-and-forth, and unlike the new Poly Networks employee, this hacker or group of hackers hasn’t shared his manifesto online.

As AFP reports, the increase in crypto theft has coincided with the improvement in the ability of the crypto community as a whole to find their stolen coins. But in this case, Ethereum and other stolen cryptocurrencies were quickly transferred between accounts across thousands of transactions, so finding the remaining $ 81 million can prove to be quite a challenge.

READ MORE: Hackers Steal $ 97 Million From Japanese Crypto Exchange [Agence France-Presse]

Learn More About Crypto Theft: Hacker Steals $ 600 Million In Crypto, Gets Scared, Fires It Back

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