New Zealand crypto exchange Cryptopia suffers security breach

Cryptopia, a New Zealand-based cryptocurrency exchange, has suspended its activities following a security breach.

In a tweet, the exchange said that it suffered a security breach on January 14 which resulted in “significant losses.”

Cryptopia’s official website remains offline at the time of writing. It displays the message:

“Cryptopia is currently in unscheduled maintenance mode. We will be back soon.”

While the exchange did not disclose the amount of funds lost in the breach, Whale Alert, which provides live tracking information of large crypto transactions, tweeted that 19,391 ether (ETH) tokens and around 48 million centrality (CENNZ) tokens were moved from Cryptopia to unknown wallets on January 13, CoinDesk reported.

It remains uncertain if these funds were moved by the exchange or the hacker.

Cryptopia said that it has informed relevant government agencies of the breach, including the New Zealand police and the High-Tech Crimes Unit, who are “jointly and actively investigating the matter as a major crime and they are assisting us with advice.”

“Until this has been carried out, The Cryptopia Exchange will remain in maintenance mode, with trading suspended. We are committed to getting this resolved as quickly as possible and will keep you all updated every step of the way,” it added.