Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks Owner, Lost Nearly IDR 13.8 Billion In Crypto Attacks

Trillioner and owner of Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, (photo: Twitter @Watcher Guru)

JAKARTA - Trillioner and owner of Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, reportedly lost nearly 900.000 DOLLARs (IDR 13.8 billion) in an attack on one of its crypto-filled hot wallets.

An independent blockchain researcher known as Wazz first detected the attack on September 15 at around 20:00 UTC. They highlighted suspicious behavior in one of the Cuban wallets that had not been accessed for about five months.

Based on transaction history in Etherscan, a number of assets such as USD Coin (USDC), Tether (USDT), and Lido Stacted Ether (STETH) were suddenly withdrawn from the wallet in a 10-minute window.

In addition to the complexity in this problem, about $2 million in USDC was also withdrawn and sent to different wallets, which made Wazz suspicious that Cuban might simply move assets.

However, a few hours later, Cuban confirmed to DL News that he had just used MetaMask for the first time in months and inherently indicated that criminals or cybercriminals might have been watching and waiting for the right time to act.

Cuban added that he had transferred the remaining assets to Coinbase Custody, thus confirming that USDC transactions worth $2 million belonged to him.

In connection with the attack, community members immediately highlighted that rather than criminals overseeing Cuban's activities, he may have done something that caused a security breach.

Some suggested that Cuban might accidentally sign a malicious transaction, while others insisted that his personal key had been compromised, given that the funds were immediately transferred from the wallet.

This is not the first time Cuban has suffered losses in the crypto market. In June 2021, Cuban lost an unmentioned amount of capital in what he called a "rug pull" after an algorithmic stablecoin project called Iron Finance collapsed due to the collapse of a allegedly fake bank.