$50 Million in ETH Stolen from Korean Crypto Exchange Upbit

November 27, 2019, by Marko Vidrih on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE

The South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit announced the theft of 342,000 ETH (about $49 million) as a result of a fraudulent transaction from the platform wallet.

The CEO of Upbit stated on the company’s blog that a fraudulent transaction from the site’s wallet resulted in a leak of 342,000 ETH. The exchange promises to cover losses with the company’s own assets. Deposits and withdrawals were temporarily suspended as a precaution.

According to company estimates, it will take “at least two weeks” to resume all operations in normal mode. According to the Whales Alert transaction tracking site, a total of 342,000 ETH were withdrawn from the Upbit wallet to an unknown address, at 1:06 PM on November 27, 2019.

After about 30 minutes, Upbit announced a temporary suspension of operations “due to server maintenance”. In fact, cryptocurrencies worth more than $100 million were sent today from Upbit. Nevertheless, the exchange stated that all other transactions, except the withdrawal of 342,000 ETH, were transfers from the exchange’s hot wallets to cold storage in order to prevent the theft of crypto assets.

According to Whales Alert in the morning, 10 transactions in TRX amounted to $1.51 million each have passed, as well as $3.5 million in BTT were sent to unknown addresses. After this, XLM transactions worth $8.7 million, OMG $1.08 million, EOS $22 million and SNT $3.4 million were initiated from Upbit wallets to Bittrex wallets.

Recall that the Upbit exchange was launched in 2017 as part of the partnership between Dunamu and Bittrex.

Author: Marko Vidrih