Patricia, Nigeria’s leading cryptocurrency exchange platform, has lost $2 million in cryptocurrency assets to hackers, the company disclosed in a recent announcement.
According to the details of the now-public hack, Patricia lost a total sum of $2 million in customers’ money to a breach that occurred in January 2022.
On 26th May, Patricia via an email to customers announced it has commenced investigations into the activity of the hackers that compromised its Bitcoin and Naira assets in 2022.
Explain the unit of the company affected, the company said out of its three operating units, Patricia Personal, Patricia OTC Desk, and Patricia Business, only Patricia Personal, the retail trading arm of the company was the only unit affected by the security breach.
Therefore, the company announced a temporary suspension of withdrawals on its platform due to what it called “internal restructuring”.
However, customers have said before the company’s official announcement it had partially suspended withdrawals since January 2022 when the hack was suspected to have occurred. The customers said while they could deposit into their wallets they can’t transfer their coins to other platforms but can only withdraw the equivalent in Naira.
While Patricia did not disclose specifics of the breach, it said it has identified an individual within the syndicated group that breached its organisation. The company has expressed its determination and readiness to pursue the lead by collaborating with security agencies to recover the stolen assets.
Meanwhile, a Twitter user @dondekojo faulted the company’s action for the late report of the security breach it encountered last year.
He wrote, “So let me get this straight, Patricia allegedly got hacked in 2022 and lost ~$2m they didn’t say anything, continued to promote their retail trading app on BBN despite the deficit, they then created a new app in April that led to a self-inflicted bank run as people moved to other apps instead, and now they are freezing withdrawals.
Some users are skeptical that all might not be well with the platform despite its assurances, Investors King reports.
