A group of disgruntled cryptocurrency investors has launched a class-action lawsuit against Atomic Wallet, which suffered a major breach and lost $100 million in June.
German business media agency BNE IntelliNews reported that dozens of high-net-worth investors from Russia and the CIS countries participated in a class action lawsuit against Atomic Wallet report August 21st.
The lawsuit was coordinated by German lawyer Max Gutbrod and Boris Feldman, co-founder of Moscow-based legal tech firm Destra Legal.
Gutbrod, a former partner at Moscow law firm Baker & McKenzie for more than two decades, reportedly claimed that the lawyers represented about 50 clients at the Atomic These customers lost a combined $12 million in the Wallet breach. He said:
“We are working hard to recover assets for our clients and we will be filing a class action lawsuit against Atomic Wallet (…) They did not provide our clients with any information about the hack and did not report it to the police.”
Atomic Wallet, a non-custodial cryptocurrency wallet, suffered a massive $100 million attack in mid-June 2023. The breach affected at least 5,500 crypto accounts on the platform. Cryptocurrency analysis firms such as Elliptic have since linked the theft to the Lazarus Group, a North Korean cybercriminal group believed to have stolen billions of dollars in cryptocurrency through various thefts.
While the original report blamed Lazarus for the Atomic Wallet attack, new claims suggest there may be another culprit.
According to Feldman’s allegations, the hack was more likely planned by a Ukrainian group. His firm, Destra, has been handling the case through Match Systems’ blockchain analysis, which has also been conducting its own investigations on behalf of investors.
“They found traces of the involvement of a Ukrainian hacker group,” Feldman reportedly said.
A spokesperson for Atomic Wallet told Cointelegraph that the company has not received “any formal legal notice of a class action.” The representative added:
“The investigation is still ongoing and no possible issues have been confirmed to be caused by a security breach. The security of the wallet application has always been our top priority. Each wallet release is verified by an external team of cybersecurity experts.”
The spokesperson also stressed that no new cases have been reported on Atomic Wallet since June.
related: Newly Discovered Bitcoin Wallet Vulnerability Allows Hackers to Steal $900,000 — SlowMist
As previously reported, Atomic Wallet did not clarify exactly what conditions led to the June exploit. The company listed just four of the most “likely” causes, including viruses on users’ devices, infrastructure vulnerabilities, man-in-the-middle attacks, or malware code injection. Atomic Wallet also went on to reiterate that less than 0.1% of app users were affected.
Shortly after the hack, the cryptocurrency wallet apparently continued to function normally.
Bookmark this article as an NFT Preserve this moment in history and show your support for independent journalism in the cryptocurrency space.
Magazine: The Big Question: Did the NSA Create Bitcoin?
Svlook
