Billionaire entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban, with a net worth exceeding $5 billion, experienced a cryptocurrency hack on the night of September 15th. The attack targeted his MetaMask wallet, resulting in a loss of approximately $870,000 worth of various cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum (ETH), USD Coin (USDC), Polygon (MATIC), Lido staked Ethereum (stETH), and tokens from SuperRare and Ethereum Name Service.
Furthermore, the hack was initially noticed by on-chain investigator Wazz, who observed unexpected transactions in the dormant MetaMask wallet labeled ‘Mark Cuban 2’ on EtherScan. Although Cuban managed to safeguard around $2 million worth of assets by transferring them to Coinbase Custody, most of the stolen proceeds remained in the hacker’s wallet at the time of reporting.
Cuban attributed the breach to the possible download of a malicious MetaMask extension, emphasizing that he had not used MetaMask for months, suggesting that the attackers might have been monitoring his activity. The incident underscores the dangers of fake MetaMask extensions created by malicious actors to trick users into revealing private keys or seed phrases, allowing them to drain cryptocurrency assets.
Following the hack, Cuban secured his non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on OpenSea and moved his MATIC holdings from the compromised account. Notably, this is not the first time Cuban has experienced cryptocurrency losses; in 2021, he suffered an unspecified loss when Iron Finance’s TITAN stablecoin collapsed due to a supposed rug pull.
Cuban’s hack is part of a recent series of high-profile crypto attacks and scams, reflecting the ongoing challenges and risks faced by prominent figures and cryptocurrency platforms.
For instance, just days before Cuban’s incident, the crypto exchange CoinEx reported a $27 million hack, highlighting the vulnerability of cryptocurrency platforms to security breaches. Additionally, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s X account was recently hacked to promote a phishing link, resulting in the theft of approximately $700,000 worth of NFTs and cryptocurrencies from victims.
