South Korean Crypto Exchange Bithumb Loses $30 Million in a Hack

Following a recent hack which resulted in the theft of $30 million worth of cryptocurrencies, South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb has put off deposits and withdrawals.

On Wednesday, the Seoul-based firm which was at some point the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange revealed that $30 million worth of cryptocurrencies was apparently stolen from the platform.

It is still uncertain at which point in time the hack was conducted, but Bithumb has put off all deposits and at once started transferring all of its assets to cold wallets to stop more damages.

“We checked that some of the cryptocurrencies valued at about $30,000,000 were stolen,” Bithumb said on Twitter. “Those stolen cryptocurrencies will be covered from Bithumb and all of the assets are being transferred to a cold wallet.”

It is alleged that the hack was used to steal the money, but the exchange is yet to officially confirm this. Given the small nature of the hack, it is possible that a hacker tried to get access to an internet-connected “hot wallet” for one of the more thinly-traded assets listed on the platform.

According to the exchange, the firm will take full responsibility for the losses to ensure that users are not affected, aside from the temporal failure to access their assets. For the meantime, deposits are suspended.

At present, Bithumb is ranked as the world’s sixth largest and South Korea’s second- largest cryptocurrency exchange, with a daily trading volume of about $330 million.

This is the second hack experienced by a South Korean exchange this month. About a week ago, little-known exchange Coinrail lost close to $37.2 million worth of coins and a variety of ERC-20 tokens.

After the hack, the bitcoin price declined almost $200, erasing much of the recovery that the markets had made during the past 48 hours.