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Cryptocurrency investment firm BlockTower Capital suffers losses due to cyber attack
(Bloomberg) — Retail cryptocurrency investors have often been victims of cyber attacks and scams in the industry. Now the recipient is an important investment company.
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BlockTower Capital’s main hedge fund has been compromised and partially drained by scammers, according to people familiar with the matter, who declined to be identified discussing sensitive information. According to data provider PitchBook, the company has $1.7 billion in assets under management.
The funds are still missing and the hacker has not been arrested, but the firm has employed blockchain forensic analysts to determine how the money was stolen and recently notified its limited partners about the robbery, one of the people said. BlockTower declined to comment on the hack when contacted by Bloomberg.
Cryptocurrency hacks continue to rock the digital asset sector, with scammers stealing an estimated $1.7 billion from projects last year, according to research firm TRM Labs.
Founded in 2017, BlockTower has offices in Miami and New York and has invested in companies that include non-fungible token developer Dapper Labs, Sky gaming studio Mavis and Terraform Labs, maker of the failed TerraUSD stablecoin. The company raised a $150 million venture fund in 2022.
The hack isn’t the first setback for BlockTower. Last year, the company closed its “market-neutral” crypto fund, which at one point oversaw more than $100 million, after investment opportunities for the strategy dried up.
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