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Bithumb, South Korea's largest crypto exchange hacked for $13 million

  • Bithumb hacked for $13 million, second case in less than a year.
  • Customers' cold wallets not compromised, company funds affected.

South Korea's largest crypto exchange Bithumb, has been hacked for $13 million in what occurs to be second such event after it was last hacked in June 2018 when hackers stole $30 million from exchange's wallets resulting in company transferring all its customers funds into cold wallets and had to suspend all the withdrawals and deposit of funds.

Thankfully Bithumb's customers were not affected by this latest hack as all of their coins are now kept in cold wallets after June 2018's attack made company be more proactive in storing customers' funds. The exchange also suspended deposit and withdrawal of funds on Saturday.

Bithumb disclosed that the job is likely to be an inside job and the funds may have been moved by individuals associated with the company.

“As a result of the internal inspection, it is judged that the incident is an ‘accident involving insiders.’ Based on the facts, we are conducting intensive investigations with KISA, Cyber Police Agency and security companies. At the same time, we are working with major exchanges and foundations and expect to recover the loss of the cryptocurrency equivalent,” the statement read.

It is noteworthy that Bithumb was cleared by Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) as having robust security systems in place in August 2018, just two months after the June 2018 attack.


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Manoj B Rawal

Manoj B Rawal

Independent Analyst

Manoj B Rawal, financial markets professional with about 11 years of experience in writing, editing and advising on stocks, currencies and fixed income.

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