On September 7, Fortress Trust disclosed that several customers had been "impacted by a third-party vendor" compromise. On September 8, Fortress Trust announced they had been acquired by Ripple. On September 11, The Block reported that Ripple had covered undisclosed losses to customers as a part of the acquisition deal. The losses were later disclosed to be around $15 million, and the third-party vendor was said to be a company called Retool, who blamed the compromise on a social engineering attack against one of their employees.
Fortress Trust hit by "security incident", bailed out by Ripple
Fortress Trust is a crypto custody and blockchain infrastructure company, founded by Scott Purcell. Purcell is also known for founding Prime Trust, which later lost over $75 million in customer funds, squandered another $8 million gambling on Terra/Luna just before its collapse, and then filed for bankruptcy in August 2023. Purcell is also embroiled in a lawsuit from former company Banq, now also bankrupt, which alleges he stole trade secrets and other valuable material to start Fortress.
- Tweet thread by Fortress Trust [archive]
- "Ripple Acquires Crypto-Focused Chartered Trust Company Fortress Trust", CoinDesk [archive]
- "Ripple made Fortress customers hit by security incident whole as part of acquisition", The Block [archive]
- "Episode 125 – How to Steal Almost $100 Million: Prime Trust goes Bust", Crypto Critics' Corner [archive]