Duelbits reports roughly $7 million hack as casino stays offline

Duelbits goes dark after a reported $7 million hack

Crypto casino and sportsbook Duelbits was still offline on Friday after co-founder Joe reported a hack of about $7 million. Customers were left waiting for withdrawals to resume.

In a 2:28 p.m. ET update on Sept. 25, Joe said the team needed "a little more downtime" to secure the platform and replenish its hot and cold wallets. A hot wallet is an internet-connected wallet used for daily operations, while a cold wallet is kept offline. He said customer balances were unchanged and that users would be able to withdraw when the site reopened.

Key facts at a glance

• Co-founder Joe reported a loss of roughly $7 million.
• The site stayed offline on Friday, and no new reopening time was given.
• Joe said customer balances were unchanged and withdrawals would resume at reopening.
• Blockchain records show seven transfers from a Duelbits-linked address on Ethereum and BNB Chain early on Sept. 24.
• Security researchers described a suspected private key compromise. Duelbits has not explained the cause of the incident in its public updates.

What the co-founder said about downtime and withdrawals

Joe said on Thursday evening that the team was rebuilding its deposit and withdrawal servers and expected the site back within about 15 hours. Friday's extension did not include a replacement reopening time. Duelbits' public updates have not explained what caused the incident.

Onchain records show $3.8 million across two chains

A review of Ethereum transactions and BNB Chain records shows seven transfers from the Duelbits-associated address beginning 0x014435 to the flagged recipient, 0xA77e24. The transfers took place between 4:59:55 a.m. and 5:02:47 a.m. ET on Sept. 24.

The Ethereum transfers included 836 ETH, 593,430 USDT, 96,805 USDC, 31,515 DAI and about 12.4 billion SHIB. On BNB Chain, the wallet sent 209 BNB and about 552,762 Binance-Peg BSC-USD tokens.

Using the explorers' quoted prices on Friday afternoon, the seven transfers were worth approximately $3.8 million, according to The Defiant's calculation. That figure covers only this two-chain subset and is not a complete accounting of the $7 million loss reported by Joe.

Funds were consolidated into ether, then moved on

Security firm PeckShield said the recipient had consolidated the funds into roughly 1,588 ETH and 31,500 DAI. Onchain records show the assets then moved to an intermediary wallet, which swapped 31,515 DAI for about 11.78 ETH after the swap fee.

The intermediary then sent ether to the address 0x8dB9D7…C306. Etherscan showed a balance of about 2,333.64 ETH, worth $6.28 million, at that destination on Friday afternoon. The wallet also received funds from other addresses, so its entire balance cannot be attributed to the seven transfers.

Researchers flagged a suspected private key compromise

The shutdown followed transfers that security researchers flagged as suspicious early Thursday. Scam Sniffer identified Duelbits hot wallets on Ethereum, BNB Chain and Tron and described a "suspected private key compromise." That description is a claim from the research firm, not a confirmed cause.

A similar loss in February 2024

Duelbits has faced a similar incident before. CertiK reported that about $4.6 million was taken in February 2024 in what it described as a possible private key compromise.

What is confirmed

The co-founder's statements, the platform shutdown and the onchain transfers described above are the confirmed elements reported so far. Joe confirmed the roughly $7 million figure and said customer balances were unchanged.

What is still unclear

• The cause of the incident has not been explained by Duelbits.
• The roughly $7 million figure has not been fully matched to onchain records in the available material.
• No new reopening date or time has been announced.

Sources

• The Defiant

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