South Korean Exchange Bithumb Hacked, $30 Million Lost – Bitsonline

More bad news for cryptocurrency exchanges today as South Korean Exchange Bithumb has reported they have been hacked, losing approximately $30 million USD, or 35 billion won. All deposits and withdrawals have been suspended while the hack is investigated.

Breaking News: Bitsonline will continue to monitor this story and update our readers as new information comes to light.

Bithump Hacked

Bithumb states on their official Twitter account that all assets are being moved to cold wallet storage, essentially moving all funds offline while further security measures are implemented.

Bitcoin saw a small dip in wake of this news, dropping about $150 in value on Bitfinex, though it is perhaps too early to know how this may affect the market in the coming hours and days.

Largest Exchange in South Korea

Bithumb is the largest Korean exchange by trading volume. This hack comes only two weeks after the South Korean authorities finished a three month investigation into the exchange, primarily looking into tax issues, for which they did not find any wrongdoing.

The theft also comes only eight days after Coinrail, another Korean exchange, was hacked, losing $40 million. This further adds to the list of cryptocurrency exchanges that have been victims of significant hacks, including NiceHash, OKCoin, Bitfinex, and Coincheck, among others.

Ironically, the hack has occurred only four days after Bithumb announced security upgrades were being implemented.

EOS Connection?

EOS is currently the most heavily traded digital asset on Bithumb. Less than 24 hours ago, Cornell University Professor Emin Gün Sirer predicted a “massive exchange hack” would occur before the end of the year, which he said would be accomplished by exploiting an EOS vulnerability. His prediction of a hack came true perhaps sooner than expected, though it is too early to know if an EOS vulnerability has any connection to this intrusion.

Note: Bithumb has since deleted a post on their official Twitter page stating they were hacked. It was tweeted at approximately 9:30pm EST. The original text of the tweet is as follows:

Bithumb
@BithumbOfficial

30m
[Notice for the suspension of all deposit and withdrawal service]
We checked that some of cryptocurrencies valued about $30,000,000 was stolen. Those stolen cryptocurrencies will be covered from Bithumb and all of assets are being transferring to cold wallet.

Have your say? Are Korean exchanges particularly bad at security?

Image via Pixabay

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