Cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb has lost around $19 million in a hack suspected to be an insider job, marking the second major hack the exchange has experienced in under a year.

The company announced the news on its website on March 30, explaining that it spotted “abnormal withdrawals” of cryptocurrency at 22:15 Korean time through their monitoring system. Deposits and withdrawals were promptly suspended after the breach was noticed, with the exchange explaining the reason for its actions on Twitter:

[Notice?]

We deeply apologize to our members for delaying the cryptocurrency deposit and withdrawal service, we would like to inform you of the circumstances of the grounds and confirm that your assets are safe.

For more details >> https://t.co/dOvT78P0sK — Bithumb (@BithumbOfficial) March 30, 2019

According to crypto news outlet The Block Crypto, around 3 million EOS (worth close to $13 million), and around 20 million Ripple (worth about $6.2 million) were lost in the hack. The funds were withdrawn from the exchange’s “hot” wallet through a series of transactions. Bithumb also explained that the stolen funds were “owned by the company”, and that “all members’ assets are under the protection of a cold wallet.”


After an internal inspection, the exchange judged that the hack was an “accident involving insiders”, and is now conducting an investigation with the help of Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), Cyber Police Agency, and security companies. It is also working with other major exchanges in the hopes of recovering a portion of the lost funds.

According to their blog post, cryptocurrency exchange ChangeNow disabled all EOS and XRP deposits, and blacklisted all malicious addresses received from Bithumb, after receiving a message from the exchange. ChangeNow was able to retain about $500,000 worth of EOS, which is kept in a cold wallet as requested from law enforcement.

This incident marks the second hack Bithumb has experienced in under a year, with the first one costing the exchange nearly $31 million. In June of last year the exchange lost 2,016 Bitcoin (BTC), 2,218 Ethereum (ETH) and various other cryptocurrencies, but later was able to recover $14 million-worth of the stolen funds.