According to BitoPro, the tactics and methods used by the hackers closely resemble those seen in other global incidents tied to the Lazarus Group, including high-profile thefts via SWIFT banking systems and other major crypto platforms.
BitoPro serves a primarily Taiwanese customer base, offering fiat transactions in TWD alongside various cryptocurrencies.
The exchange currently supports over 800,000 users and processes approximately $30 million in daily trades.
The attack exploited vulnerabilities during a system update, enabling the unauthorized withdrawal of funds from a legacy hot wallet spread across several blockchain networks, including Ethereum, Tron, Solana, and Polygon. The stolen cryptocurrency was then quickly laundered through decentralized exchanges and mixers such as Tornado Cash, Wasabi Wallet, and ThorChain, making recovery and tracing more difficult.
Despite the attack taking place in early May, BitoPro only publicly acknowledged the breach on June 2. At that time, the exchange assured users that daily operations remained unaffected and that the compromised hot wallet had been replenished from its reserve funds.
Following a thorough investigation, the exchange confirmed that no internal staff were involved.
However, the attackers used social engineering tactics to infect a cloud administrator’s device with malware. This allowed them to steal AWS session tokens, bypass multi-factor authentication, and gain unauthorized access to BitoPro’s cloud infrastructure. From there, they were able to insert scripts directly into the hot wallet system and carry out the theft while mimicking legitimate activity to avoid early detection.
After discovering the breach, BitoPro deactivated the affected wallet system and rotated its cryptographic keys, though the damage had already been done. The company reported the incident to authorities and brought in a third-party cybersecurity firm to conduct an independent review, which concluded on June 11.
The Lazarus Group has a long history of targeting cryptocurrency and decentralized finance platforms. This attack on BitoPro adds to their growing list of cyber heists, including the recent $1.5 billion digital asset theft from the Bybit exchange.
