Attackers hacked Upbit cryptocurrency exchange and stole $ 48.5 million

Attackers Hacked Upbit South Korean Cryptocurrency Exchange. Unknown attackers stole 342,000 Ethereum from the exchange’s hot wallet, that is, approximately $ 48.5 million at the rate at the time of the attack.

“Dear Upbit Investors, this announcement is to clarify the reason for the unscheduled suspension of crypto-asset deposit/withdrawal. First of all, we apologise for any inconvenience we caused. At approximately 13:06 on November 27th, 2019 (KST), 342,000 ETH was sent from Upbit’s Ethereum hot wallet to an anonymous wallet address. We took immediate actions to protect your assets, and no investors’ assets were lost”, — report Upbit employees.

Starting November 27, 2019, Upbit temporarily suspended its work, banning the deposits and withdrawal of funds, and all assets of the exchange have so far been transferred to cold wallets.

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According to the official statement of the developers, the work of the resource would resume approximately in two weeks.

“To prevent any losses of UPbit users, the company will cover 342,000 ETH missing from the suspicious transaction. We have moved all funds to cold wallets. It will take two weeks for open deposits and withdrawals”, — says Upbit message.

Additionally, representatives of the exchange stock promised that they would fully compensate users all the damage, although how it will be done has not yet been reported.

On Reddit and on social networks, the message about hacking has already been called into question, as users believe that in reality this could be an attempt to exit scam or insiders’ work.

“I actually do not think the UPbit incident is moving down the price of bitcoin because it shouldn’t really. UPbit is covering for all losses. If it is related, it would be that the “hacker” is selling it, which is difficult to do it so quickly after the incident. The “hacker” timed when UPbit was making crypto transfers to its cold wallet. Hence, I think the probability of it being an inside job is higher than external breach”, — writes IS researcher Joseph Young.