A transaction marked as an exploit by blockchain monitoring tool Etherscan revealed tens of millions of dollars in Dai stablecoin, USD Coin, Tether, Wrapped ETH, and other currencies moved from the firm to a wallet address branded “Wintermute Exploiter.”
Market makers, such as Wintermute, play an important role in the cryptocurrency ecosystem by providing liquidity to exchanges by keeping huge quantities of various cryptocurrencies in reserve in order to promptly execute a big purchase or sell order. Because these reserves must be accessed quickly, some increased security techniques, such as storing money in offline “cold storage” wallets, cannot be employed, posing a larger security risk. Wintermute, as one of the major market-making organizations, would have been an appealing target for hackers.
