South Korean stock exchange Upbit suspended operations and issued an urgent notice to users after discovering suspicious transactions using its hot wallet. Solana.
First of all, we offer our deepest apologies for the inconvenience caused to our users due to the urgent review of digital asset deposit and withdrawal services, as well as the abnormal withdrawal situation today.
Upbit immediately suspended deposit and withdrawal services and conducted a comprehensive review, prioritizing the protection of participants’ assets, he said. CEO of the operator Upbit dunamu Kyung Suk.
The exact cause of the hack has not yet been established, but the incident could have been caused by a compromise of the wallet infrastructure. Upbit, and not a vulnerability in the protocol itself Solana.
According to cybersecurity experts, directly from a wallet controlled by Upbit, which stored tokens on the base Solana, nearly 54 billion won (approximately $36 million) in assets were withdrawn. At least 24 different cryptocurrencies were involved, including SOL, USDC, Bonk (BONK), Layer (LAYER), and Jupiter (JUP).
As part of the team’s recovery efforts, Upbit managed to freeze LAYER tokens worth approximately 12 billion won.
We continue to monitor the remaining assets and are working with relevant projects and organizations to further freeze assets, the exchange representative said.
Upbit promised to fully compensate all losses to affected users, but at the time of publication, a detailed compensation plan with a timeframe had not been released.
To prevent any damage to the assets of the participants, the entire amount will be covered by the assets Upbit, the company added.
Upbit began cooperating with investigators to freeze more compromised funds and identify the source of the hack.
A major hack could be a serious obstacle regarding the exchange’s merger with tech giant Naver and the company’s IPO in the US.