Non-custodial cryptocurrency exchange, Bisq had announced that it will temporarily halt trading service on its platform following a newly discovered security vulnerability.
Based on the development, the exchange notified its users not to proceed with any existing transaction or send funds to any party as it could result in a loss, and also warned against any attempt to overriding the key that is used to halt trading.
In a follow-up statement published today, Bisq has revealed the amount lost to the “critical security vulnerability” on the exchange, “approximately 3 BTC and 4000 XMR (appr. $250,000) stolen from 7 different victims.” The team also reported that the only market on the exchange affected by the breach was the XMR/BTC market, with all affected trades occurred over the past 12 days.
Meanwhile, the exchange developers have also released the v1.3.0 hotfix update to eliminate the security threat which according to the team emanated from a flaw in the Bisq trade protocol released in October.
A quick one on Bisq
Bisq is an open-source exchange that allows users to buy, sell, and trade Bitcoin (BTC) using fiat currencies.
There is no limit to the number of daily transactions on the platform. However, the maximum amount of trade size is 0.25 BTC for most bank-based payment methods like SEPA. In contrast, for transactions involving other payment services like PerfectMoney and AliPay, the maximum transaction amount is 1 BTC.
Meanwhile, both centralized and decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges have faced several security challenges in the past, which has led to many exchanges temporarily halting trading service or permanently winding up after some time.
Last year, Coinfomania reviewed the top five infamous crypto exchanges security failures with millions of dollars lost in the heist.
Update: This article has been updated to reflect information regarding the amount users lost to the Bisq security breach, and the team’s explanation to the incident. An earlier version only reported the security vulnerability and the halt of trading on the platform.
