Unocoin says over 90% of assets in cold storage; BitGo says it wasn't breached
In brief
- Unocoin says over 90% of customer assets sit in cold storage, with no confirmed losses so far.
- BitGo says its systems weren't breached and its key in Unocoin's 2-of-3 multisig wasn't used.
- Unocoin shut down all services, including logins, on November 9 and plans a 4-5 day rebuild.
- Unocoin's investigation is ongoing; the exchange says it lacks full visibility into every transaction.
What Unocoin says happened
Unocoin detected unauthorized activity on its platform on November 6, 2026, according to Crypto Briefing. The exchange asked Fireblocks to freeze its enterprise accounts at 11:24 UTC and sent BitGo the same request at 11:29 UTC (five minutes later). Both freezes were confirmed shortly after the requests came in.
It didn't end there.
On November 9, further unauthorized actions led Unocoin to shut down every service on the platform, logins included, and it began investigating a potential compromise of its servers. The exchange said it plans to rebuild its systems from scratch, a job it estimated would take 4-5 working days. Customers can't log in at all until that rebuild is finished.
On November 12, Unocoin spotted outgoing Ethereum transactions from its BitGo wallet infrastructure and escalated them for review.
BitGo's account
Unocoin used a 2-of-3 multisig wallet with three keys: a user key, a backup key and BitGo's key. Any two signatures could approve a transaction. BitGo's investigation, completed on November 13, concluded that its systems hadn't been breached.
The custody provider said the Ethereum transactions were authorized with Unocoin's own user and backup keys, and that BitGo's key was never used. BitGo also said no other clients were affected by the incident.
Crypto Briefing reported that research findings point to a possible exploitation of the backup key mechanism in Unocoin's multisig setup. That's an unconfirmed working theory, and the investigation is still underway.
What customers know so far
Unocoin says it keeps over 90% of customer assets in cold storage, meaning offline wallets that aren't connected to the internet, and that there have been no confirmed losses so far. The exchange also says it doesn't yet have full visibility into every transaction (it attributes that gap to the complexity of change addresses).
LeoDex News hasn't seen the original Unocoin or BitGo statements; the accounts above are as reported by Crypto Briefing.
Frequently asked questions
How did Unocoin's 2-of-3 multisig wallet work?
Unocoin used a 2-of-3 multisig setup with a user key, a backup key and BitGo's key. Any two of the three signatures could approve a transaction. BitGo said the Ethereum transactions under review were authorized with Unocoin's user and backup keys, without BitGo's key.
Have Unocoin customers lost any funds?
Unocoin says there have been no confirmed losses so far and that over 90% of customer assets are held in cold storage. The exchange also says it doesn't yet have full visibility into every transaction, and it attributes that gap to the complexity of change addresses.
When can Unocoin users log in again?
Customers can't log in until Unocoin finishes rebuilding its systems from scratch. The exchange shut down all services, including logins, on November 9 and estimated the rebuild would take 4-5 working days.
