Hackers stole $ 50 million in Ethereum from Upbit exchange
- South Korean cryptocurrency exchange fell victim to a hack attack.
- The attackers stole 342,000 ETH coins to the tune of $50 million.
The company's CEO confirmed the information about the hack. All deposits and withdrawals are suspended.
The Upbit exchange has been hacked, company CEO Sok-Wu Lee said. He confirmed the information that someone withdrew 342,000 ETH coins to an unknown wallet. The estimated damage amounts to about $ 50 million.
The CEO of the exchange Sok-Wu Lee apologized for the inconvenience. He promised that Upbit will compensate for the damage caused to platform users. The exchange is expected to get back online within two weeks. Currently, the deposits and withdrawals are not available.
Twitter-bot Whale Alert has registered the transaction from the Upbit exchange to cold wallets. The total amount of funds withdrawn exceeded $ 70 million. However, Lee emphasized that only Ethereum refers to stolen assets, and the rest of the transfers were made by the exchange itself for security purposes.
The news might have triggered the sell-off on the cryptocurrency market. The total capitalization of all digital assets in circulation dropped to $191 billion. BTC/USD dived under $7,000. While the downside momentum seems to be contained, for now, the market is still vulnerable to further losses.
Author
Tanya Abrosimova
Independent Analyst
