OKX Wallet faces ‘backdoor’ claims – ‘Will reward 10 BTC as bounty’

Key Takeaways

How did OKX react to wallet backdoor claims? 

The founder discredited the claims but opened access for security researchers to verify the allegations and help patch it up. 

Is OKX exchange safe from the alleged “wallet backdoor”?

Per Xu, YES. He noted several security layers on the device, including Google and OKX authentication, which help minimize breaches at end-user interfaces.  

OKX has made headlines today following rumors of a backdoor in its Web3 wallet, OKX Wallet, which could potentially steal users’ private keys and funds.

The claims were made by an employee at OneKey, a security firm focused on hardware wallets. 

The whistleblower added that the problem is not confined to OKX Wallet but is widespread across the industry. 

Source: X

Founder denies OKX Wallet backdoor claims

However, Star Xu, the Founder of OKX, downplayed the allegations and asked security researchers to evaluate the issue with a 10 BTC bounty reward.  

“Anyone who can provide solid evidence proving the existence of a backdoor in OKX Wallet, our wallet team will reward 10 BTC. We invite OKX Wallet’s tens of millions of global users to jointly monitor this.”

Like the Binance ecosystem, OKX Wallet allows users to seamlessly switch between the exchange and the wallet to access the Web3 and broader DeFi ecosystem (commonly referred to as CeDeFi design).  

For Xu, this new CeDeFi was more “intuitive” and relatively secure as it depends on Apple/Google ID alongside OKX authentication data. To enhance transparency, he shared open source repositories for researchers to check for any alleged backdoors. 

X Layer scam allegations

The firm also faced allegations of scams related to its X Layer ecosystem, a purpose-built chain.  A user claimed that the team was reluctant is flash out perceived rug pulls like H402 and others that could dent the TVL (total locked value) and trust in the ecosystem. 

Although OKX had not responded to the above claim as of press time, rug pulls are also occurring on other chains. Perhaps helping the community by highlighting legit projects in the ecosystem could be more helpful. 

That said, OKX has faced a slew of customer issues this year, from account freezes to a lack of transparency in buybacks of its native token, OKB. 

Even so, OKX had a 10/10 rating on Coingecko. As of October, the platform had $35 billion worth of assets, with notable excess holdings in Bitcoin [BTC], Ripple [XRP] and USDT. 

That said, OKB traded at $115 at press time. It was down 55% amid broader market weakness. A potential recovery could be confirmed if it decisively reclaims $120 region as support. 

Source: OKB/USDT, TradingView