Bithumb Hacked, Operations Frozen

Bithumb, one of the largest crypto exchanges in South Korea has suspended the deposit and withdrawal of assets against the backdrop of a cyber attack where around $31 million was stolen, the exchange said in a statement.

As a result of the attack, around $31 million (35 billion KRW ) worth of cryptocurrencies is said to have been stolen from the website. Bithumb isn’t disclosing the exact amount of crypto that’s missing. The remaining assets of the exchange have been moved to a cold wallet.

This is not the most serious attack from a financial point of view: in January, Japanese crypto exchange Coincheck has lost nearly $400 million of crypto, which is considered to be the largest crypto theft in the industry.

Update:

South Korean Ministry of Science and Technology (MIC) has now issued and investigation into the theft alongside Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) and the police.

The Cyber Bureau’s officers are securing files from the servers of the crypto exchange. Authorities plan to analyze data and evidence to confirm whether the company was indeed hacked and by whom.

Speculations over what happened are now spreading all over popular social media platforms. Some twitter users have spotted that the official Bithumb Twitter post reporting on a hack and promising a repayment of funds was deleted.

These are the posts:

Some users say that Bithumb’s Twitter page was most likely hacked, while another version is that the amount stolen is well in excess of the $30 million figure. Others believe that a $27 million (30bn won) tax bill the company is facing has caused it to stage a fake cyber attack.

By Nadya Astam