Crypto Prices on CoinMarketCap Go Berserk Stirring Hack Suspicions, Reactions Flood Twitter

While CoinMarketCap has informed its users that the “issue” has been fixed, it has not revealed if its servers detected any kind of a breach attempt.

By Radhika Parashar | Updated: 15 December 2021 16:01 IST

Crypto Prices on CoinMarketCap Go Berserk Stirring Hack Suspicions, Reactions Flood Twitter

Photo Credit: Twitter/ @WatcherGuru

In 2020, cryptocurrency-related crimes amounted to around $10.52 billion (roughly Rs. 79,194 crore)

Highlights

CoinMarketCap ended up rebooting its servers
The website claims that the “pricing issue” has been fixed
No confirmation on hack attempt

Amid the rising cases of crypto-related hacks, a weird instance left the followers of cryptocurrency website CoinMarketCap scratching their heads. On the eve of Tuesday, December 14, CoinMarketCap, touted as one of the biggest crypto websites globally, began flashing wildly erroneous prices for Bitcoin, Ether, and several altcoins. Relatively unknown cryptocurrencies were also being displayed in the list of top ten crypto coins on the website. The matter emerged to be one of the trending topics of discussions on Twitter, with several people suspecting a hack attack on CoinMarketCap.

The price of Bitcoin being displayed on the website was a whopping $789,432,690,634 (roughly Rs. 60,05,056 crore), whereas Etherprice was being shown as $38,884,629,258 (roughly Rs. 2,95,787 crore) per token.

Among random altcoins that made it to the list of the top ten cryptocurrencies on CoinMarketCap, Sora and Hex secured significant spots.

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Soon after, CoinMarketCap followers opened floodgates of “I am a millionaire” jokes and hack attack conspiracy theories on Twitter. A bunch of hashtags including #CoinMarketCap, #CoinMarketCapGlitch, and #CoinMarketCapHacked have been trending on Twitter since.

Either CoinMarketCap has been hacked or I'm next year's Time Magazine Person of the Year pic.twitter.com/XVZvD8wdxi
— David Bradford (@DeeBeeFree) December 14, 2021

So #CoinMarketCap has been hacked which means my trust wallet shows I'm a billionaire... Where's the lambos at? pic.twitter.com/hZN5qSOgsK
— Matt-ivity :sparkles::christmas_tree: (@matthewjmartin_) December 14, 2021

This just happened. Coinmarketcap trying to send people to the hospital. It's a glitch. pic.twitter.com/yD48oAuWyw
— Alex Krüger (@krugermacro) December 14, 2021

The crypto website addressed the situation on Twitter with a rather funny angle.

How did it feel to be a trillionaire for a couple hours?:joy:
— CoinMarketCap (@CoinMarketCap) December 14, 2021

In a now deleted tweet, CoinMarketCap had acknowledged the issue.

“Our website is currently undergoing Price Issues. The Engineering team is aware of incorrect price information appearing on (the website). We are currently investigating and will update this status when we have more information,” the tweet read.

It remains unclear why has the post been taken off Twitter.

Later, the platform informed its followers that the “issue has been fixed”, not stating if its servers detected any kind of a breach attempt.

Following the irregularities we observed on our platform this afternoon, despite the issue having been fixed, we will be rebooting our servers as a final step in accordance with our internal remediation plan. Apologies for the inconvenience.
— CoinMarketCap (@CoinMarketCap) December 15, 2021

Meanwhile, hack attack fears among crypto users seem to be growing by the day.

A recent report on DarkWebLink revealed that cryptocurrency-related crimes in 2020 have amounted to around $10.52 billion (roughly Rs. 79,194 crore).

The number of crypto hacks targeting investors, gaming platforms as well as exchanges have also spiked in recent times.

Last week, crypto-gaming ecosystem called Vulcan Forged fell prey to a hack attack, losing $140 million (roughly Rs. 1,062 crore) worth of crypto assets.

Recently, a hack cost crypto-exchange Bitmart $196 million (roughly Rs. 1,479 crore) after the money stored in the form of various cryptocurrencies was stolen.

In October, a major hack cost Ethereum-powered lending protocol called “Cream Finance” $130 million (roughly Rs. 972 crore) worth of crypto assets.

Earlier in November, US' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had said that cyber scammers are making innocent people use physical cryptocurrency ATMs and digital QR Codes to complete malicious transactions and dupe them of their assets.

Interested in cryptocurrency? We discuss all things crypto with WazirX CEO Nischal Shetty and WeekendInvesting founder Alok Jain on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

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Further reading: Cryptocurrency, CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin, Ether, Hack

Radhika Parashar

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Radhika Parashar is a senior correspondent for Gadgets 360. She has been reporting on tech and telecom for the last three years now and will be focussing on writing about all things crypto. Besides this, she is a major sitcom nerd and often replies in Chandler Bing and Michael Scott references. For tips or queries you could reach out to her at RadhikaP@ndtv.com. More