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A $10 million hack targeting sophisticated crypto users has top security experts baffled.

Taylor Monahan, former CEO and founder of Ethereum wallet manager MyCrypto, said on Twitter Tuesday that over 5,000 in ETH had been stolen since December.

Thats over $10.4 million-worth of crypto at todays prices.

The worrying part? It hit hardware wallets of users who prioritized security, according to Monahan.

For the past 48 hrs Ive been unwinding a massive wallet draining operation, wrote Monahan, who joined MetaMask after MyCrypto was acquired by the crypto wallets parent company ConsenSys last year. Folks are those who are more crypto native than most and reasonably secure were hit by the draining of funds, she tweeted.

In other words, these arent crypto newbies clicking on obvious phishing links that are being drained. The attack is far more sophisticated than that, and its OGs who are being rekt, Monahan explained. No one knows how.

The security team behind popular crypto wallet MetaMask told Decrypt that the unidentified exploit hit crypto users including, but not limited, to MetaMask users.

The on-chain behavior heavily suggests a private key compromise, they said.

What current investigations are showing is that it seems that this specific attack vector is pointing towards these users secret recovery phrases being compromised somewhere down the line, likely due to unintentionally insecure storage of said phrase.

Private keys are used by crypto users to access their funds stored in a walletbe it digital or physicaland authorize transactions.

Monahan also said that the attack targeted funds held on wallets created from 2014-2022. My best guess [right now] is that someone has got themselves a fatty cache of data from 1+ [years] ago [and] is methodically draining the keys as they parse them from the treasure trove, Monahan tweeted. She emphasized that, however, that this is only a guess, and no one yet has been able to determine the source of their compromise.

Her best advice? Please dont keep all your assets in a single key or secret phase for years, she said.

MetaMasks security team added that in order to protect funds, users must not store their private keys anywhere online or on any internet-enabled device.

If you ever get to the point where your wallet is so old that you cant remember if youve been 100% diligent with its keys at all times, then consider creating a new wallet, they added.

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A Hacker Has Stolen $10 Million in Ethereum and No One Knows How - Decrypt

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler did not give a direct answer when asked whether Ether, the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain, is a security or a commodity at a congressional oversight hearing on Tuesday.

See related story: CFTC chair calls Ethereum a commodity, in contrast to SEC chair Genslers position

Gensler directly addressed the House Financial Services Committee (HFSC) for the first time since October 2021, which was before the collapse of FTX and crypto-friendly banks, including Signature, Silicon Valley Bank, and Silvergate.

Gensler did not give a clear and direct answer to Congressman Patrick McHenry, the committee chairman, who asked if Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, is a security.

Actually, all securities are commodities under the Commodity Exchange Act. Its that we are excluded commodities. But I would agree that a security cannot be also an excluded commodity and an included commodity, responded Gensler.

Regulators and prosecutors have held contrasting views on how to classify Ether. The Attorney General of New York recently called it a security, but the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Rostin Behnam argued that it is a commodity.

Gensler hinted on multiple occasions that he may view cryptocurrencies based on the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, such as Ether, as securities.

In May 2022, Gensler publicly labeled Bitcoin, the worlds largest cryptocurrency by market cap, as a commodity.

Gensler told the HFSC on Tuesday that the SEC needs more resources and bodies to regulate the crypto asset class.

Late last month, Gensler testified before the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government and requested US$2.4 billion in funding from Congress for the agencys operations, which includes its cryptocurrency crackdown.

See related story: SEC chair Gensler: No plans to ban crypto, says its up to Congress

(Updates to fifth and eighth graph)

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SECs Gary Gensler dodges question on whether Ethereum is a security - Yahoo Finance

Ethereum prices are free-falling less than 24 hours after Gary Gensler, the chairperson of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), was put totaskon whether ETH, the native cryptocurrency of Ethereum, was a security or a commodity.

That Gensler failed to clarify the status of ETH before the House Financial Services Committee on April 18 can be problematic.

Rep. Patrick McHenry, the committee chair, pressed Gensler to state whether ETH was a commodity or a securitymeaning the asset must be regulated by the SEC and engaging entities must register to transact.

However, Gensler failed to answer the question saying he didnt want to pre-judge. This statement is despite the SEC taking enforcement actions and serving Wells Notices to several cryptocurrency companies in the past few months.

How the SEC will react to the House Finance Services Committees demands remains unclear. In the meantime, without clarity and the SECdemandingplatform offering staking services to register, ETH and tokens of proof-of-stake networks would likely remain under pressure.

When writing on April 19, ETH prices have fallen below the psychological $2,000 level, dropping 8% in the last few hours. It comes after ETH prices peaked at around $2,140 on April 14, a few days after the activation of the Shanghai Upgrade on the Ethereum mainnet.

Shanghai was a highly anticipated update that allows validators and stakers to withdraw their coins from the Beacon Chain.

From the Ethereum daily chart, the collapse of prices on April 19 has unwound the gains of April 14. It continues to heap pressure on buyers from last week.

Still, even at spot rates, the uptrend remains firm. ETH is up 40% from mid-March and 72% from December 2022 lows.

Whether this trend will continue and Ethereum buyers flow back depends on the reaction of prices in the next few trading session. The key reaction points going forward are April 2023 highs at $2,140, acting as resistance; and $1,900 on the lower end.

While the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have confirmed Bitcoin to be a commodity, the silence from the SEC on ETHs status could negatively impact ETH and how conservative investors perceive the second-largest cryptocurrency.

Institutional investors often conduct their due diligence so they dont have exposure to unregistered securities. The SEC is yet to issue clarity on the precise classification of ETH, which is negative for the coin.

Feature Image From Canva, Chart From TradingView

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Ethereum Crashing Hours After SEC Head Failed To Clarify ETHs Security Status - NewsBTC

Bitcoins price dropped by over 4.5% Wednesday morning in the space of a few hours, reaching new weekly lows of $29,158, per data from CoinGecko. At present, Bitcoin is trading at around $29,275, down over 2% on the day.

The total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies fell at a similar pace with Bitcoin, dropping by 3.7% over the last 24 hours to $1.27 trillion. Ethereum (ETH) also broke below its $2,000 psychological level, and is currently down 6% in the last 24 hours, trading at $1,975.

While there were no immediate catalysts to explain the price crash, gold also experienced a 1.57% drop around the same period, suggesting that the declines can be correlated.

BTC/USD (top) and Gold hourly price chart. Source: Trading View

On April 14, the U.S. Federal Reserve leaned toward another 25 basis point hike in its upcoming May policy rate meeting, strengthening the dollar and putting pressure on gold and Bitcoin.

The news restricted a crypto market uptrend during the weekend, as Bitcoins price dropped to lows of $29,380 on Monday. While there was a brief recovery above $30,000 the following day, a simultaneous drop in gold and Bitcoin suggests that the market may still be attempting to price the interest rate hike.

The price drop caused a total of $250 million in liquidations across the entire crypto market over the past 24 hours, with the majority of the orders being long, according to Coinglass data. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, and XRP accounted for over 40% of the liquidated amount, with the rest of the liquidations distributed across the entire market.

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Over $250 Million in Liquidations as Bitcoin, Ethereum Slip - Decrypt

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MEV bot responsible for 7% of total gas on Ethereum network in 24 hours - CryptoSlate