Algo Capital Hacked, Lose up to $2M as Ex-CTO Takes Full Responsibility

The now ex-CTO of Algo Capital, Pablo Yabo, says he will take full responsibility for the recent security breach that affected an Algo hot wallet, according to a Medium post he published on 7 October.

Last Friday, Algo Capital, the investment arm of blockchain firm Algorand, informed its limited partners that its CTO’s phone was hacked, which resulted in the attacker gaining control over a hot wallet he managed, a “source familiar with the matter” told Coindesk on 5 October.

The source further said that the firm had lost between $1 million and $2 million in Tether (USDT) and Algorand (ALGO).

According to the report, the Algorand Network was not affected as its cold wallets, which hold the majority of its funds, were not breached.

The report further says that Algo Capital has informed Algorand about the breach, and that it will take full responsibility for it, by reimbursing the entire amount in the next 20 months.

David Garcia, Managing Partner of Algo Capital, said:

“We are engaging with certain key organizations and security services to collaborate and address this issue which has become a common industry problem.”

Today, Yabo confirmed that he has resigned from his position as CTO of the company. He further said that he takes full responsibility for the matter, and that he will personally cover most of the stolen funds, while the rest will be taken care of by Algo Capital General Partners.

His post further stated that he will now focus his time on Randlabs.io, to develop technology for the Algorand ecosystem.

In late August, Algo Capital announced that it has raised $200 million for its venture capital fund, which aims to support projects that build infrastructure for the Algorand blockchain.

At the time Arun Murugan, Algo Capital’s founder and managing partner, said:

“Our investment approach specifically targets companies that are creating the next great blockchain applications and infrastructure solutions, and as a result, helping to speed blockchain adoption and bring millions of new users into the Algorand network.”