Upbit suffers its first hacking attack, $50m in ETH stolen

One of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea, Upbit, recently confirmed that it is investigating an Ethereum transaction worth almost $50 million. The suspicious transaction occurred at around 4:06 UTC (KST 1:06 pm), when 342,000 ETH was transferred from the exchange's platform to an unknown wallet.

Alerted by a suspicious transfer, Upbit immediately moved all funds to cold wallets, according to an announcement made by its operator, Dunamu. Meanwhile, the country's media outlets continue to speculate about the hack, with rumors of altcoins other than Ethereum being involved. In fact, the rumors claim that the total amount that the 'hackers' transferred from Upbit might be as large as $79 million.

So far, however, the only confirmed information is that $49.8 million in ETH ended up in an unknown wallet. Other coins involved in what appears to be a theft are believed to include BTT, TRX, and XLM, according to Chosun.

Upbit has yet to release details of the incident

For now, Upbit continues with its investigation, although it stated that it would cover the cost of losses of all customers that were affected by the potential hack.

The exchange reacted relatively quickly, and it suspended all transactions only minutes after the alleged hack. Its announcement at the time stated that they are performing 'server checks,' but they also said that customers could still withdraw or deposit fiat currencies.

For now, there are no certainties regarding when trading might continue, although Upbit announced that it would likely be in around two weeks.

While Upbit did confirm that it will pay for any potential losses of the affected users, the company still remained silent for quite a long time, and many have started speculating about the event. The crypto community on Twitter came up with all sorts of theories, from the incident being an error to being an inside job.

For now, however, all that remains is to wait for further updates and Upbit's official statement regarding what exactly happened.