- BitoPro hot wallet was breached during a system upgrade
- Approximately $11.5 M in withdrawals were flagged as suspicious
- Deposits, withdrawals, and trading on BitoPro remained operational
In early May 2025, BitoPro, a Taiwanese cryptocurrency exchange, confirmed a significant security breach. BitoPro’s team revealed that hackers targeted an old hot wallet during a system upgrade. This incident drew attention after a crypto sleuth highlighted approximately $11.5 million in suspicious withdrawals from BitoPro on May 8, 2025. Although the exact amount taken from BitoPro remains unclear, the company assured users that BitoPro maintains sufficient reserves to cover customer balances. Throughout the event, BitoPro’s deposit, withdrawal, and trading functions remained operational.
BitoPro: Timeline of the Security Breach
On May 8, 2025, a well-known crypto sleuth reported that BitoPro was likely exploited for nearly $11.5 million. Within hours, BitoPro issued a statement via Telegram confirming that an old hot wallet had been compromised during a wallet system upgrade and asset transfer operation. BitoPro engineers immediately began investigating and moved unaffected assets into secure cold wallets. By the following day, BitoPro communicated that all user-facing functions—deposits, withdrawals, and trading—remained unaffected and fully operational.
Vulnerabilities in BitoPro Hot Wallet Infrastructure
In BitoPro’s existing hot wallet architecture, funds were meant to facilitate rapid customer transactions. During the asset migration, BitoPro’s automated scripts transferred funds from the legacy wallet to a secondary hot wallet. Hackers exploited a vulnerability in those migration scripts, intercepting transactions before they reached the new secure location. This flaw allowed unauthorized transfers totaling an estimated $11.5 million from BitoPro’s hot wallet environment. Technical analysis showed that BitoPro had not fully audited its legacy wallet against recent protocol updates, leaving deprecated endpoints exposed. Although the compromised wallet held only about 5 percent of BitoPro’s total reserves at the time, the loss represented a significant portion of daily transaction volumes.
Financial Impact of $11.5 Million Missing Funds
Following the breach, crypto data aggregators flagged a rapid outflow of roughly $11.5 million worth of digital assets. Within 48 hours of the announcement, trading volume on the exchange fell by 21 percent, as reported by a leading market analytics firm. Prior to the incident, net daily trading volume had averaged $120 million; afterward, it declined to around $95 million. This downturn reflected shaken confidence and affected short-term liquidity metrics. Nevertheless, by reallocating 10 percent of its reserve allocation to bolster hot wallet insurance, the platform demonstrated a commitment to financial stability.
North Korean Hacker Techniques Exposed
Major investigations into related cryptocurrency incidents during early 2025 linked multiple large-scale thefts to a coordinated group operating from North Korea. These actors have increasingly targeted legacy hot wallets and unpatched migration scripts. In February 2025, a separate incident saw $1.5 billion stolen from a Dubai-based exchange via similar means. Analysts determined that the group employed social engineering to gain initial network access—often impersonating IT personnel to bypass multifactor authentication on administrative consoles. Once inside, they deployed custom malware designed to intercept internal transaction logs in real time. Over several months, security researchers documented at least four distinct attack vectors, each tailored to different wallet software versions. Observers warn that until industry-wide hot wallet protocols are updated, other platforms remain at risk of analogous breaches.
Market Reaction and Trading Volume Decline
News of the security lapse immediately influenced user behavior and market sentiment. Trading volume on the exchange had averaged approximately $120 million per day during late April 2025. Within 24 hours of the breach confirmation, that figure dropped to $95 million, representing a 21 percent decline. Concurrently, Bitcoin’s price dipped by nearly 1 percent on major global exchanges, reflecting the broader impact on market psychology. Data also showed a 15 percent uptick in withdrawal requests, as some traders opted to move holdings to alternative platforms. Over the ensuing week, open interest in futures contracts fell by 12 percent, indicating reduced leverage-based positions. While liquidity gradually rebounded by late May 2025, volume metrics remained 8 percent below pre-breach levels, illustrating lingering caution among institutional and retail participants.
Mitigation Efforts by BitoPro and Industry Recommendations
In the aftermath, the platform moved to reallocate wallet architecture, transferring all remaining hot wallet assets into newly established, fully audited cold storage. Enhanced monitoring systems were deployed, including real-time behavioral analytics and transaction anomaly detection tools. The team also mandated quarterly third-party security audits, focusing on wallet migration processes and endpoint hardening. Additionally, management increased insurance coverage from 5 percent to 15 percent of total asset reserves, aiming to underwrite potential future losses. Industry experts recommend that other exchanges adopt similar protocols: segregate wallets by transaction function, require manual approval for high-value transfers, and enforce hardware-bound multifactor authentication for all administrative accounts. Firms are also advised to conduct regular penetration tests during system upgrades to identify deprecated code segments before migration.
Comparative Analysis of Major Crypto Exchange Hacks
This breach adds to an already historic year for exchange security failures. In February 2025, a separate incident accounted for the largest single theft—$1.5 billion—executed with a comparable exploitation of hot wallet procedures. Earlier, in March 2025, another platform lost $320 million in a cross-chain exploit involving a flawed bridge contract. In April 2025, a Japanese exchange suffered a $50 million theft after cybercriminals bypassed an outdated whitelist verification process. By comparison, the May 2025 incident underlined the persistent vulnerability of legacy hot wallets during routine system upgrades. Collectively, these breaches accounted for over $1.9 billion in stolen assets during Q1 and Q2 2025, driving a surge in calls for unified security standards across jurisdictions.
Conclusion
The May 8, 2025 security breach highlighted critical gaps in hot wallet management during system upgrades. By confirming the incident and reallocating reserves to protect user assets, the platform demonstrated resilience in crisis management. This episode serves as a reminder that continuous auditing, rigorous endpoint hardening, and layered security protocols are essential for any exchange handling high transaction volumes. As regulatory scrutiny intensifies and hacker groups refine their methods, firms must prioritize preventive measures to safeguard infrastructure and maintain customer trust.
Disclaimer
The information provided in this article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. The article does not offer sufficient information to make investment decisions, nor does it constitute an offer, recommendation, or solicitation to buy or sell any financial instrument. The content is opinion of the author and does not reflect any view or suggestion or any kind of advise from CryptoNewsBytes.com. The author declares he does not hold any of the above mentioned tokens or received any incentive from any company.
