Crypto exchange Bitmart has become the latest DeFi firm to fall victim to a large-sacle security breach, losing an estimated $100 million and suspending all withdrawals.

The Exchange's chief exectuive Sheldon Xia took to Twitter to explain that the security breach was caused by a stolen private key that compromised two of its hot wallets.
1/4 In response to this incident, BitMart has completed initial security checks and identified affected assets. This security breach was mainly caused by a stolen private key that had two of our hot wallets compromised. Other assets with BitMart are safe and unharmed.

Xia says BitBitMart will use its own funding to cover the incident, which he estimates at $100 million, and compensate affected users.

"We are also talking to multiple project teams to confirm the most reasonable solutions such as token swaps," he says. "No user assets will be harmed."

The Exchange, whose Twitter handle bills itself as "The Most Trusted Crypto Trading Platform", is expected to re-open trading Tuesday.

Security analyst firm PekShield reckons the losses could be higher than suggested, comprising around $100 million on the Ethereum blockchain and $96 million from the Binance Smart Chain.

Recent data from Elliptic reveals that just over $12 billion in losses have been suffered over the past year by DeFi users and investors.

In August $613m of user funds was drained from PolyNetwork in the largest DeFi attack to date. However, the attacker eventually returned the funds.