Grinex Exchange Halts Operations After Major Crypto Attack

Grinex, a Kyrgyzstan-registered exchange linked to Russia’s crypto ecosystem, suspended trading after a sophisticated cyberattack that drained funds from 54 wallet addresses, exceeding 1 billion Russian rubles (~$13.7M). Blockchain firms TRM Labs and Elliptic traced roughly $15M in assets leaving Grinex, reporting conversions into TRX and Ether—likely to avoid Tether freezes. TRM also identified a main wallet holding 45.9M TRON (~$15M) and additional linked addresses; on‑chain flows implicated a second exchange, TokenSpot. The breach amplifies market-wide security concerns amid a recent wave of attacks (12 platforms hit in just over two weeks, highlighted by the $280M Drift exploit), raising regulatory scrutiny, counterparty risk for Russia-linked platforms, and heightened volatility/selling pressure for affected tokens and venues.