South Korean Crypto Exchange GDAC Loses 23% of Assets to Hackers

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Hackers have stolen
approximately 23% of digital assets stored in GDAC’s hot wallet, the South
Korea-based cryptocurrency exchange said on Monday. Seunghwan Han, GDAC’s Chief
Executive Officer, confirmed the attack in a statement published on the firm’s
website on Monday.

In the statement, Han disclosed that the stolen custodial assets include 60.8 Bitcoin, 350.5 ETH, 10 million WEMIX
tokens and 220,000 USDT. Based on the April 10, 2023, prices of the
respective digital assets on CoinMarketCap, the amount of stolen digital assets were $1.7 million, $652.8 million, $11.8
million and $220,000 million, respectively. This gives total of
$14.2 million.

According to Han, the hack
occurred around 7am on Sunday (yesterday) and the stolen cryptocurrencies were
transferred to an unidentified wallet. As a result of the incident, the CEO
said the exchange has “suspended and blocked” access to deposit and withdrawal
on its wallet system and servers.

The exchange also said it has asked for cyber investigation by the police into the incident. The firm also
reported the event to the Korea Internet and Security Agency (KISA), it said in the statement. Furthermore, the
cryptocurrency exchange said it has notified the Korea Financial Intelligence
Unit (FIU) of the hack. FIU is the Korean government agency responsible for coordinating the
country’s anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism
regime.

Still on efforts by GDAC, Han
noted that the firm is seeking cooperation from asset issuers, exchanges and
decentralized finance managers to freeze assets or deposit from the address
where the withdrawal occurred.

“Currently, we are doing our
best by collaborating with various organizations. We ask for your understanding [and] that it is difficult to confirm the resumption point of deposit and withdrawal
as the investigation is currently underway,” Han explained in Korean
(as translated by Google).

WEMIX Takes Action

With 10 million WEMIX tokens or
$11.8 million stolen, WEMIX depositors on GDAC suffered the biggest loss in the
hack. Reacting to the news, the WEMIX Foundation distanced its business from
the hack, noting that “all foundation as well as community assets existing on
our network are safely protected.”

“The quantity and the condition
of Foundation-managed WEMIX, as well as the security and safety of the
platforms, DApp services, and smart contracts are not affected by this
incident,” the Foundation wrote in a post published on Medium.

However, the Foundation said it
has taken steps to help GDAC trace the stolen digital assets including blocking
deposits and transfers from suspicious wallets across all global exchanges
where WEMIX tokens are listed. It has also informed WEMIX bridge service providers, Multi-chain and Orbit bridge, to increase their security measures.

“Liquidity provided for Uniswap
V3 via the WEMIX-USDC pair has been temporarily withdrawn to prevent liquidity
depletion caused by fraudulent transactions,” the Foundation explained, adding that its team “will do its best to
minimize the potential negative impact to the WEMIX community and investors.”

Meanwhile, new data from Chainplay suggests that over $30 billion has been lost to crypto-related crime in the last 10 years. The firm notes that crypto crime hit an all-time high in 2022 with USD$12 billion stolen via 436 attacks.

Hackers have stolen
approximately 23% of digital assets stored in GDAC’s hot wallet, the South
Korea-based cryptocurrency exchange said on Monday. Seunghwan Han, GDAC’s Chief
Executive Officer, confirmed the attack in a statement published on the firm’s
website on Monday.

In the statement, Han disclosed that the stolen custodial assets include 60.8 Bitcoin, 350.5 ETH, 10 million WEMIX
tokens and 220,000 USDT. Based on the April 10, 2023, prices of the
respective digital assets on CoinMarketCap, the amount of stolen digital assets were $1.7 million, $652.8 million, $11.8
million and $220,000 million, respectively. This gives total of
$14.2 million.

According to Han, the hack
occurred around 7am on Sunday (yesterday) and the stolen cryptocurrencies were
transferred to an unidentified wallet. As a result of the incident, the CEO
said the exchange has “suspended and blocked” access to deposit and withdrawal
on its wallet system and servers.

The exchange also said it has asked for cyber investigation by the police into the incident. The firm also
reported the event to the Korea Internet and Security Agency (KISA), it said in the statement. Furthermore, the
cryptocurrency exchange said it has notified the Korea Financial Intelligence
Unit (FIU) of the hack. FIU is the Korean government agency responsible for coordinating the
country’s anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism
regime.

Still on efforts by GDAC, Han
noted that the firm is seeking cooperation from asset issuers, exchanges and
decentralized finance managers to freeze assets or deposit from the address
where the withdrawal occurred.

“Currently, we are doing our
best by collaborating with various organizations. We ask for your understanding [and] that it is difficult to confirm the resumption point of deposit and withdrawal
as the investigation is currently underway,” Han explained in Korean
(as translated by Google).

WEMIX Takes Action

With 10 million WEMIX tokens or
$11.8 million stolen, WEMIX depositors on GDAC suffered the biggest loss in the
hack. Reacting to the news, the WEMIX Foundation distanced its business from
the hack, noting that “all foundation as well as community assets existing on
our network are safely protected.”

“The quantity and the condition
of Foundation-managed WEMIX, as well as the security and safety of the
platforms, DApp services, and smart contracts are not affected by this
incident,” the Foundation wrote in a post published on Medium.

However, the Foundation said it
has taken steps to help GDAC trace the stolen digital assets including blocking
deposits and transfers from suspicious wallets across all global exchanges
where WEMIX tokens are listed. It has also informed WEMIX bridge service providers, Multi-chain and Orbit bridge, to increase their security measures.

“Liquidity provided for Uniswap
V3 via the WEMIX-USDC pair has been temporarily withdrawn to prevent liquidity
depletion caused by fraudulent transactions,” the Foundation explained, adding that its team “will do its best to
minimize the potential negative impact to the WEMIX community and investors.”

Meanwhile, new data from Chainplay suggests that over $30 billion has been lost to crypto-related crime in the last 10 years. The firm notes that crypto crime hit an all-time high in 2022 with USD$12 billion stolen via 436 attacks.



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