BigONE Exchange Suffers $27 Million Hack, Pledges Full User Reimbursement
BigONE, a global cryptocurrency exchange, confirmed on July 16 that it suffered a third-party attack on its hot wallet infrastructure, resulting in losses totaling approximately $27 million. The breach triggered immediate alarms after unusual asset flows were detected by the platform’s monitoring system.
Private Keys Safe, But Attack Traced to Infrastructure Flaw
According to BigONE, although no private keys were compromised, attackers managed to infiltrate the production network, exploiting what appears to be a vulnerability in the CI/CD deployment environment. The exploit allowed them to bypass core risk controls, drain crypto assets, and convert them through laundering intermediaries.
The platform acted swiftly by collaborating with SlowMist, a blockchain security firm, to track the attacker’s wallet addresses and monitor the movement of the stolen funds.
Affected tokens include:
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120 Bitcoin (BTC)
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350 Ether (ETH)
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Millions in USDT (Tether) across multiple chains
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Other assets such as CELR, SNT, SHIB, and Solana (SOL)
BigONE to Reimburse All Affected Users
BigONE pledged to cover 100% of user losses, deploying its internal security reserves in BTC, ETH, USDT, SOL, and Mixin (XIN).
“For other affected mainstream and non-mainstream tokens, we are actively securing external liquidity through borrowing mechanisms,” the company stated.
The platform emphasized its ongoing work to restore full wallet functionality, vowing not to pass the damage on to users.
How the Hack Was Executed
A report by security firm Cyvers revealed that the breach originated from malicious binaries introduced into BigONE’s account-operation servers.
Key points of the exploit:
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Initial 350 ETH stolen ($1.1 million)
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Attack escalated across BTC, Solana, and Tron networks
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Funds consolidated and converted to WETH/ETH, signaling intentions to obfuscate the trail via mixing or decentralized exchanges
Security expert Yehor Rudytsia from Hacken noted that weaknesses in CI/CD pipeline integrity and limited network segmentation were major factors. He stressed the need for:
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Automated incident response
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Strict code controls
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Continuous infrastructure monitoring
$2.47 Billion Lost in Crypto Exploits in 2025
The BigONE incident is part of a broader wave of crypto-related exploits in 2025, with total losses reaching $2.47 billion so far—up 3% from 2024’s $2.4 billion.
Just a day before this breach, Arcadia Finance, a DeFi platform on Base blockchain, lost approximately $3.5 million in a separate exploit.
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