Iota Foundation Investigates Funds Allegedly Stolen From Trinity Wallets

The Iota Foundation has put out a warning regarding Iota (MIOTA) coin wallet Trinity, and its association with stolen funds. 

After multiple Iota holders reported missing coins, the Iota Foundation announced the suspension of its network node, called the Coordinator, while the entity explores the situation, a Feb. 13 Iota status update said. 

Iota runs on the tangle, not blockchain

A major player in the 2017 bull run, Iota stood out as one of the few cryptocurrencies not on the blockchain. The asset runs on the tangle, using Directed Acyclic Graph technology, or DAG for short. 

The Iota Foundation runs the Coordinator, a node on the network to help prevent attacks. Although the network still apparently relies on the Coordinator, the Iota Foundation posted a discussion on the node’s elimination in a 2018 blog post.

The asset’s Trinity wallet causes issues

Last summer, the Iota Foundation released Trinity, a new wallet for Iota storage. 

On Feb. 12, 2020, an Iota status update urged users not to open their Trinity wallets for the time being, citing multiple reported accounts of stolen Iota.

The next day, after looking into the issue, the Iota Foundation said thieves likely obtained victims’ private wallet keys. The foundation noted approximately 10 cases of reported theft, which all involved Trinity wallet usage. 

Network transaction research also indicates only roughly 50% of victims have reported cases to the foundation at the time of the announcement. 

“We'll share a full transparent report of all events once this has concluded, for now we'll limit the information we share to not give provide the attackers with any additional insights,” the update said, adding that the data thus far still is not fully decisive. 

This is not the first bout of trouble Iota has seen since 2017. The network has seen multiple functional problems, including a 24-hour mainnet shutdown in December 2019.

Cointelegraph reached out to the Iota Foundation for additional details, but received no response as of press time. This article will be updated accordingly should a response come in.