FTX investigates possible $473 million hack

() — FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange that filed for bankruptcy on Friday, is investigating whether the crypto assets were stolen and has taken all of its digital assets offline, they reported on Saturday.

Those assets could be worth more than $400 million, crypto risk management firm Elliptic said.

In a saturday morning tweetFTX general counsel Ryne Miller said the company was “taking precautionary measures” and moving all of its digital assets into cold wallets or (called cold wallet, in English), which means that the crypto wallet is no longer connected to the Internet. This comes after Friday’s announcement that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Elliptic said that while the theft is unconfirmed, it appears the amount taken was $473 million in FTX crypto assets.

The process was “expedited” on Friday night “to mitigate the damage by observing unauthorized transactions,” Miller said in a tweet.

Miller tweeted late Friday that FTX was “investigating anomalies” regarding wallet movements “related to the consolidation of FTX balances on exchanges.” The facts are still unclear and the company will share more information as soon as possible, he added.

Missing stablecoins and other tokens are rapidly being converted to ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin, on decentralized exchanges, Elliptic said. Furthermore, he added that it is a common technique used by hackers to prevent their funds from being seized.

FTX, until last week one of the most powerful players in the crypto industry, is experiencing a rapid collapse. Its founder and CEO of 30 years, Sam Bankman-Fried, resigned and He lost his $16 billion fortune in less than a week.

In its bankruptcy filing, FTX said it has between $10 billion and $50 billion of estimated assets and liabilities.

“I am so sorry, again, that we have ended up here,” Bankman-Fried wrote in a Twitter thread on Friday. “Hopefully things can recover.”