Mark Cuban has confirmed that he was targeted in a hacking incident, although the exact method remains a mystery at this time.
Reportedly, approximately $900,000 worth of cryptocurrencies vanished from one of Mark Cuban’s hot wallets. The billionaire investor and Dallas Mavericks owner had not interacted with this wallet for nearly five months, and the breach was initially spotted by independent blockchain investigator @WazzCrypto on September 15 around 8 PM UTC. Suspicious activity prompted WazzCrypto to investigate Cuban’s wallet, which revealed a sudden withdrawal of assets, including USD Coin (USDC), Tether (USDT), and Lido Staked Ether (stETH), within a 10-minute timeframe.
The situation became more convoluted when an additional $2 million worth of USDC was transferred to a different wallet, leading WazzCrypto to speculate that Cuban might have been reshuffling his assets. However, Cuban later confirmed that he had accessed MetaMask for the first time in months. He vaguely suggested that the hackers might have been monitoring his activities and waited for an opportune moment to strike. Cuban eventually moved his remaining assets to Coinbase Custody, confirming the legitimacy of the $2 million USDC transaction.
Community members were swift to comment on the situation, with some suggesting that Cuban might have inadvertently authorized a malicious transaction. Others believed that the breach occurred due to the compromise of his private key, as the funds were directly siphoned out of the wallet.
This incident marks another setback for Mark Cuban in the volatile cryptocurrency market. In June 2021, he suffered losses in what he described as a “rug pull” when the algorithmic stablecoin project Iron Finance collapsed amid claims of a bank run.
