Bitfinex CTO denies rumors of data breach from ransomware group

Bitfinex chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino is casting skepticism on claims circulated on social media that the exchange was the subject of a large-scale data breach, as hacking group FSOCIETY claimed on April 26. 

"We're performing deep analysis of our systems and no breach was found currently," Ardoino wrote on X, noting that fewer than a quarter of the email addresses supposedly stolen from Bitfinex's servers match legitimate users. 

Hacking group FSOCIETY, styled after the fake hacking group from the television show Mr. Robot, claimed successful hacks on several victims on its darkweb homepage on April 26, including Rutgers University, consulting firm SBC Global, and crypto exchange "Coinmoma," likely a misspelling of Coinmama. 

Hacking group FSOCIETY claimed to hack Binance on April 26.

However, of the companies that were reportedly hacked by FSOCIETY, none appear to have acknowledged a significant data breach or the payment of a ransom. Ardoino claimed they never received a direct message from the hacking group. 

"Their post was published the 25th of April, giving 7 days to contact them. Yet we discovered about this claim only yesterday. If they had any real information they would have asked a ramson [sic] through our bug bounty, customer support ticket, emails, twitter etc. We couldn't find any request," Ardoino wrote. 

Ardoino, also the CEO of Tether, shared a message he said he received from a security researcher that speculated that the real reason for the hacks was for the hacking group to promote its ransomware tools, which it sells access to reportedly in exchange for a subscription fee and a commission on stolen profits. 

"tldr: if they truly hacked Bitfinex, do they really need selling stuff for 299$?," Ardoino wrote. 

Bitfinex was infamously hacked in 2016; two individuals, including crypto rapper 'Razzlekhan', pleaded guilty to money laundering charges in connection with the hack, surrendering over 95,000 Bitcoin to the government.