Security firm Saturday reported that $196 million was stolen by hackers from Bitmart crypto trading platform.

Bitmart has confirmed that the hack was successful in an official statementSaturday night saw the hackers steal about $150 million of assets. Peckshield data security firm and blockchain analytics company Peckshield believes that the total loss could be close to $200 million.

Bitmart also stated in a statement, that withdrawals have been temporarily suspended pending further notice. Bitmart said that an extensive security review is underway.

Peckshield was the first to notice the breach on Saturday, noting that one of Bitmart’s addressesThis steady inflow showed that tens to millions of dollars were flowing to an address Etherscan refers to as “Bitmart Hacker”.

Peckshield estimatedBitmart was able to lose around $100 million on various cryptocurrency on the Ethereum blockchain, and $96 million on coins on Binance Smart Chain. They stole more than 20 tokens including safemoon and binance coin.

Bitmart stated that affected wallets for ethereum or binance smart chains “hot” only had a “small portion” of exchange assets. Further, the statement stated that all other wallets are “secured and unharmed.”

People can choose to have their own cryptocurrency stored “hot”, “cold” or any combination thereof. Hot wallets are connected to the Internet and allow owners to have relatively quick access to their cryptocurrency so they can spend and access it. This convenience comes at the cost of potential exposure to malicious actors.

CNBC reached several Bitmart employees for clarification on the hack. They wanted to know if customer funds were targeted specifically and if they would be reimbursed. CNBC is yet to hear back from Bitmart, however Sheldon Xia, Bitmart’s founder and CEO (as shown on the website) sent an email to his work address. Xia’s unverified Twitter account() received a reply with the following message: “Recipient Address Rejected: Access Denied.”

Bitmart, which offers a mix of spot transactions, leveraged futures trading, as well as lending and staking services, typically ranks as one of the top centralized crypto exchanges by volume, according to CoinGecko data.

Bitmart claims that it’s not clear what hacker methods were used. However, Peckshield says the aftermath of the breach was quite straightforward. According to security company, it was “transfer out, swap and wash.”

Hackers used Bitmart’s decentralized exchange platform, known as “1inch”, to steal the tokens. ether. The money was then transferred to Tornado Cash which is a private mixer that makes it difficult for anyone to track the cash.

Rick Holland, Chief Information Security Officer at Digital Shadows (a cyberthreat security company), said that many cybercriminals look for a mixing or tumble service. Holland explained to CNBC that these services are available for users. combine illicit funds with clean cryptothey create an entirely new kind of cryptocurrency. At that point, currency swaps are used.

Even though blockchain transactions are public, investigators still have to find their final destination. 

This is the latest in a string of hacking attacks.

The Celsius Network, a crypto lender, was launched last week. admitted to losing fundsHowever, it did not say how much it had lost as a result the $120m hack of BadgerDAO’s decentralized finance platform.

Und in August? a hacker stole more than $600 millionThe cryptocurrency platform Poly Network has issued tokens worth nearly all of the money. The attacker returned almost all of it, in a bizarre twist.