Hackers Steal $31 Million from South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb

Pierluigi Paganini June 20, 2018

Just weeks after Korean exchange Coinrail was hacked, the Bithumb crypto exchange was hacked, crooks stole over $30 million in cryptocurrency.

It has happened again, for the second time in a year, the cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb has been hacked.

The South Korean cryptocurrency exchange confirmed that hackers stole 35 billion won ($31.6 million) worth of cryptocurrency between June 19 and June 20.

In response to the incident, the exchange moved all funds to cold wallets and temporarily suspended the deposits and blocked user withdrawals.

At the time of writing, Bithumb did not reveal any details about the security breach, but it announced that it will cover losses.

“We have noticed that between the last night and today morning, about 35,000,000,000 KRW worth cryptocurrencies have been stolen. However, this loss will be compensated by Bithumb’s own reservoir, and all of our assets are securedly saved in Bithumb’s cold wallet.” reads the security advisory published by Bithumb.

“However, due to implementation enhancement as well as security check on deposit / withdrawal services, cryptocurrency deposit / withdrawal and KRW withdrawal service will be halted for time being and services are thoroughly reviewed.”

Bithumb is one of the top 10 most popular cryptocurrency exchanges, experts noticed that Bitcoin price fell 3 percent following the announcement of the incident.

Bithumb hacked bitcoin price.jpg

This is the second time in a year that Bithumb suffers a security breach, in July 2017 hackers have stolen more than $1 Million in Bitcoin and Ether cryptocurrencies from the accounts of several users of the exchange.

Experts argued that the overall funds stolen at the time were greater than initially thought.

A few weeks ago, another South Korean exchange, Coinrail, announced a cyberheist. Attackers stole over $40M worth of ICO tokens that were maintained in the servers of the exchange.

In December, the South Korea cryptocurrency exchange Youbit shut down after a being hacked two times in a few months.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – Bithumb, cryptocurrency)

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