Seoul-based Upbit confirmed today that it had fallen foul of a sophisticated plot that saw 342,000 Ether (ETH) ransacked from its wallets overnight. It is the eighth hack on a major exchange this year, adding to the dozens of attacks already recorded throughout the world. The attack came in the form of a complex rogue transaction on one of the exchange’s deposit addresses before the staggering figure was fired into an Ethereum address that remains unknown to Upbit’s investigations team.
In response, Upbit immediately froze all the exchange’s crypto assets by transferring everything from its hot wallets into highly-secure cold storage.
Upbit chiefs also pledged to cover any lost funds and assured users it would be working to replace the missing assets of customers over the coming weeks.
Observers were quick to suggest that ETH was, perhaps not the only asset stolen, believing they had spotted Tron (TRX) being removed in large quantities.
However, Lee Seok-woo – CEO of Upbit operators Doo-myeon – confirmed the stolen assets were only ETH.
Apologising for the security breach, he assured customers that Upbit had responded swiftly to the attack and pledged to replace lost assets as soon as possible.
The Upbit hack is one of dozens which have tarnished the image of cryptocurrency this year, and the eighth major exchanged to be breached in that time.
It also brings the total value of stolen assets this year alone to a staggering $4bn.
Earlier this year, one of the world’s most popular exchanges – Binance – had 7,000 bitcoin worth more than $40m ripped from user accounts.