The team behind the cryptocurrency IOTA is investigating a cyber attack and theft of an undisclosed amount of funds.
IOTA, the 23rd-largest cryptocurrency in the world with a $881-million market cap, announced on Thursday that it has turned off an IOTA-operated node called the Coordinator, which is responsible for verifying transactions on the network.
IOTA says it took the node offline to ensure hackers can’t do additional damage while engineers work to figure out what happened.
The Foundation that manages the IOTA community is also advising investors to avoid using IOTA’s Trinity wallet after determining that 10 victims of the hack had recently used the app.
“Currently, IOTA is working with law enforcement and cybersecurity experts to investigate a coordinated attack, resulting in stolen funds. To protect users, we have paused the Coordinator and advise users not to open Trinity until further notice.”
IOTA’s value in the cryptocurrency marketplace has experienced a slight pullback in the last 24 hours. As of writing, IOTA is trading at $0.32, according to CoinMarketCap, after reaching a high of $0.34 before Wednesday’s closing.
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