According to a Wednesday report by Bloomberg, the main hedge fund of cryptocurrency investment firm BlockTower Capital has fallen victim to a hacking incident.
The stolen money has not been recovered yet. BlockTower Capital is currently working with blockchain sleuths in order to figure out how the hacking incident took place. The report has not specified what amount of assets has been stolen.
BlockTower Capital was co-founded back in 2017 by former university endowment manager Ari Paul and former investment banker Matthew Goetz. In 2021, it acquired rival Gamma Point Capital to launch its market-neutral fund. However, the fund was shut down last year due to the lack of investment opportunities. BlockTower officially rolled out its $150 million venture capital fund in October 2022.
Alex DovbnyaThe crypto investment firm has been impacted by hacking incidents before. In February 2023, BlockTower Capital was affected by the $1.5 million hack of decentralized exchange aggregator Dexible.
BlockTower Capital suffered another setback due to its exposure to Silvergate Bank and Signature Bank, two cryptocurrency-friendly banks that went underwater last March.
Crypto hacks plaguing the industry
Cryptocurrency hacks remain a major issue for the nascent cryptocurrency industry. In 2022, hackers stole a whopping $4 billion. Last year, the amount of stolen funds reached $2 billion. Some of the most notable cryptocurrency victims of 2023 include Mixin Network, Euler Finance, Multichain, Atomic Wallet, and Poloniex.
Meanwhile, according to UN experts, North Korea managed to launder nearly $150 million worth of stolen crypto this March alone.
Denys Serhiichuk
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team
Vladislav Sopov