- Mark Cuban’s $870,000 crypto loss underscores vulnerability even for billionaire NBA owners, per Fortune report.
- September 15th hack drained $900,000 from Cuban’s wallet; WazzCrypto flagged the suspicious activity.
- Cuban admits to possible wallet monitoring by hackers, prompting asset transfer to Coinbase Custody. Raises security concerns.
“Even billionaire NBA owners aren’t immune from crypto exploits,” stated Fortune while reporting Mark Cuban’s $870,000 loss in crypto scam.
On September 15th, nearly $900,000 worth of digital assets were allegedly drained from a wallet affiliated with Mark Cuban, the renowned billionaire investor and owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team. Independent blockchain investigator, Wazz was the first one to spot the hack. They noticed something fishy happening in one of Cuban’s wallets that he hadn’t used for about five months. This raised alarms about unauthorized access and stirred up a buzz in the crypto world.
Reviewing the transaction history on Etherscan, it becomes evident that multiple batches of assets, including USD Coin, Tether, and Lido Staked Ether (stETH), were swiftly withdrawn from the wallet within a brief 10-minute timeframe. Complicating the situation further, an additional $2 million worth of USDC was subsequently withdrawn and transferred to a separate wallet. This intriguing turn of events prompted Wazz to entertain the notion that Mark Cuban might have been orchestrating a deliberate reshuffling of his assets.
Nevertheless, a few hours later, Mark Cuban himself verified to DL News that he had accessed his MetaMask wallet for the first time in several months. In a somewhat cryptic statement, he hinted that the hacker or hackers might have been monitoring his wallet activity, biding their time for the right opportunity to strike. This revelation adds an intriguing twist to the unfolding saga, raising questions about the extent of surveillance and vulnerability within the crypto space.
I went on MetaMask for the first time in months. They must have been watching. I’m pretty sure I downloaded a version of MetaMask with some shit in it. MetaMask crashed a couple times. I just stopped. Then you [WazzCrypto] emailed me. So I locked my NFTs on OpenSea. Transferred all my Polygon in the account.”
Mark Cuban
Additionally, Cuban clarified that in response to the security breach, he had taken decisive action by transferring his remaining assets to Coinbase Custody. This move essentially confirms that the $2 million USDC transaction was indeed initiated by him as a protective measure to safeguard his holdings.
Meanwhile, the Twitter crypto community speculates that Cuban may have inadvertently taken actions that paved the way for the security breach. Instead of attributing the breach to hackers closely monitoring Mark Cuban’s activities, some opinionated that Cuban might have unintentionally approved a malicious transaction. Others asserted that the compromise of his private key seemed plausible, particularly since the funds were directly moved out of the wallet. These theories highlight the ongoing debate within the crypto space regarding the root cause of such security incidents.
This isn’t Cuban’s first firehouse in the crypto market. In June 2021, he experienced financial losses in an undisclosed amount due to what he referred to as a “rug pull.” This occurred when an algorithmic stablecoin project known as Iron Finance collapsed in the midst of what appeared to be a bank run, highlighting the inherent risks associated with investing in the crypto sector.
During an interview with Bloomberg on June 17th, Mark Cuban took responsibility for his losses and candidly admitted to “being lazy” in terms of conducting thorough research before investing. However, he also used the opportunity to raise pertinent questions about the regulatory oversight of stablecoins, shedding light on the need for clearer guidelines and safeguards within the crypto space.
