Stolen 200 million dollars, a deep dive into the matters behind Mixin

Written by: Karen, Foresight News

In the early hours of September 23, the database of Mixin Network's cloud service provider was hacked, resulting in the loss of some assets on the mainnet, involving approximately $200 million.

Two days later, Slow Mist first disclosed this incident. Subsequently, Mixin's official Twitter stated that they had contacted Google and the Slow Mist team to assist in the investigation. Preliminary verification indicated that the involved funds were approximately $200 million.

At the same time, Mixin Network announced the suspension of deposit and withdrawal services, stating that after discussions among all nodes and reaching a consensus, these services will be reopened once the vulnerabilities are confirmed and fixed. During this period, transfers are unaffected.

Cyvers Alerts detected about 1,500 transactions related to Mixin Kernel. The first detected transaction occurred at 07:47:11 Beijing time on September 23, worth 19,000 ETH (approximately $30 million). The addresses 0x52e8 and 0x3B5f hold $117 million in ETH.

Mixin founder Feng Xiaodong stated in a recent live broadcast that the damaged assets were primarily core Bitcoin assets, and assets such as BOX and XIN did not experience severe theft; specific details about the attack cannot yet be disclosed. The official statement indicated that they would compensate up to 50% of the losses, with the remaining portion compensated in the form of bond tokens, and repurchased using profits. Additionally, Mixin will launch a new system for user asset migration, but currently, only half of the user balance can be transferred.

The Intricate Relationship Between Li Xiaolai, Feng Xiaodong, and Mixin

First, let's clarify the relationship between Mixin, Mixin Network, and Mixin Messenger. Mixin is an abbreviation for Mixin Network. Mixin Messenger is the first open-source DApp on Mixin Network, allowing login only via phone number and enabling users to send digital currency directly to friends.

According to the official Mixin page, Mixin was established in November 2017 as a free, decentralized digital asset cross-chain transmission and trading network, based on punitive PoS to prevent malicious behavior by full nodes, using DAG as the underlying data structure model. The Mixin mainnet, also known as "Kernel," allows developers to choose suitable methods to develop their own DApps, chains, and any applications based on Mixin Network according to business needs and requirements.

The founder of Mixin is Feng Xiaodong, who is also the founder and CEO of Feigeman, and a co-founder of Xuanxia (which developed the video player VPlayer). His developed Vitamio is a well-known multimedia development framework on Android and iOS platforms.

According to DingTalk, Feng Xiaodong is also the legal representative of Feigeman (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. This company was established on September 3, 2014, and its business scope includes technology development, technology promotion, technology transfer, and technology consulting services. According to Tianyancha, the website of Feigeman (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. is mixinbots.com.

Let's look at the shareholder information. DingTalk shows that Feng Xiaodong holds a staggering 94.0% of the shares, with a subscribed capital contribution of 94,000 RMB, while Li Xiaolai holds 5% and Tieling holds 1.0%. The subscribed capital contribution date is October 23, 2015.

Notably, in February 2016, Luo Yonghao invested 4,000 RMB to become a natural person shareholder, but he exited the shareholder ranks of Feigeman Technology Company this February.

The website mixinbots.com directly points to Fig Adventure (Beijing). Fig Adventure operates the mobile game live streaming community Shou.tv. According to DingTalk, Fig Adventure has a registered capital of 18.5 million RMB, established on March 11, 2015, with Feng Xiaodong as the chairman and manager, and Li Xiaolai as a director. The shareholders of Fig Adventure are Feigeman (Hong Kong) Limited (corporate legal person), holding 100.0% of the shares.

The IT Orange website directly links the official website of Fig Adventure to mixin.one, which in turn directly points to the official websites of Mixin Network and Mixin Messenger.

Feng Xiaodong's associated companies also include Candy World (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. and Aikesi (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., both of which are in a state of cancellation.

According to a blockchain article, Feng Xiaodong has also served as the chief architect of BigONE. BigONE is a cryptocurrency exchange under Coin Capital (INBlockchain), and Li Xiaolai is the founder of Coin Capital. Coin Capital partner Lao Mao is also one of the behind-the-scenes promoters of Mixin.

In addition, Li Xiaolai has previously posted promotional videos about Mixin Network on Weibo and is one of the earliest investors in Mixin. The current DApp with the highest TVL in the Mixin ecosystem is B.watch, which was also designed by Li Xiaolai. From the information released on the official website two years ago, B.watch was initially composed of three components: BTC, EOS, and XIN, which later increased to seven components: BTC, ETH, EOS, DOT, MOB, XIN, and UNI.

With 26 full nodes, how the Mixin cloud service provider's database was hacked and assets lost remains unknown. Foresight News will continue to follow up.