South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb announced that their systems were hacked and an estimated KRW35,000,000-worth of cryptocurrencies (approximately US$31 million) was stolen. The Seoul-based company suspended transactions and services as they work on security enhancements, and promised to compensate all losses.
[Read: Bitcoin hacking incidents raise concerns about cryptocurrency security ]
According to the Bithumb blog post, initial investigations determined that the attack occurred between the night of June 19, 2018 and the early morning of June 20, 2018 (KST, UTC/GMT +9:00). Bithumb transferred all funds to a cold wallet to prevent further losses upon discovery of the incident, and also announced that they will compensate all losses of the customers and undisclosed currencies affected using funds from their reserves. Bithumb temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals, and stated that they will be posting more updates soon.
The South Korean exchange ranks as the world’s sixth and the country’s second large cryptocurrency exchange, and bitcoin prices momentarily dropped following the announcement.