Korea’s largest crypto exchange freezes accounts as W58b worth assets disappear
Upbit, South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by transaction volume, has frozen digital user accounts as it found digital assets worth 58 billion won ($49.2 million) have disappeared, its operator Dunamu said on Nov. 27.
All cryptocurrencies in Upbit’s hot wallets -- digital wallets -- have been transferred to the cold storage -- or physical devices in its freeze, which will last for at least two weeks, Dunamu CEO Lee Sir-goo said in a letter.
This came as, at around 1 p.m. Nov. 27, some 342,000 Ether -- a cryptocurrency generated on the Ethereum platform -- in a digital wallet of Upbit went to a wallet identified as “0xa09871AEadF4994Ca12f5c0b6056BBd1d343c029” in an abnormal transaction.
This marked the seventh-largest crypto exchange hack by volume, according to an estimate by Coindesk.
Dunamu said the asset loss will be reimbursed with Upbit’s own assets.
By Son Ji-hyoung (consnow@heraldcorp.com)