NoOnes Suffers Security Breach

Peer-to-peer crypto trading platform NoOnes has confirmed a security breach earlier this month, resulting in the loss of approximately $8 million in crypto assets, as reported by CEO Ray Youssef. This disclosure came shortly after crypto investigator ZachXBT shared the news via his “Investigations by Zach” Telegram channel.

Youssef, who previously served as CEO of rival P2P platform Paxful, stated that the losses were due to an exploit of their Solana bridge on January 1. Consequently, the company disabled the security bridge, which remains offline according to its status page.

> “Our security teams quickly responded, and the situation was immediately contained,” Youssef tweeted.
“User funds SAFU (secure asset fund for users) and personal data SAFU. We know Solana is hot now, but it will not come back up until exhaustive penetration testing is completed. Apologies for the inconvenience.”

According to ZachXBT, NoOnes lost approximately $7.9 million across the Ethereum, Tron, Solana, and Binance Smart Chain networks. Over two days, the platform’s hot wallets were gradually drained through “hundreds of suspicious outflows,” typically amounting to around $7,000 per transaction. The stolen funds were then mixed using Tornado Cash.

ZachXBT noted that NoOnes announced maintenance shortly after the incident but did not officially disclose the security breach at that time.

Funds were bridged to Ethereum/BSC and subsequently deposited to Tornado Cash.

The NoOnes status page also indicates that its connectivity to the TON blockchain is affected, alongside Solana. Currently, SOL deposits are suspended, and there is no mention of a Solana wallet on the page.

Focusing primarily on markets in the developing world, NoOnes has recorded $2.7 million in trading volume over the past 24 hours, with BTC making up 76% of trades and USDT representing the remainder. Notably, no ETH, USDT, or Monero has been traded on the platform, according to its “CEO Dashboard.”

Youssef’s prior venture, Paxful, temporarily shut down in 2023 due to “irreconcilable differences” among co-founders, which resulted in the exit of key staff. Following a lawsuit for wrongful termination against Youssef by co-founder Artur Schaback, the exchange was closed over concerns regarding customer fund safety.

Founded in 2015, Paxful reopened about a month later and was listed by Time Magazine as one of the most influential companies of 2022, boasting 9 million users and volumes amounting to $5 billion. Youssef also co-founded the humanitarian initiative Built with Bitcoin, which focuses on financial literacy educational programs leveraging bitcoin in Africa.