Crypto Exchange Bithumb Halts Withdrawals Amid $31 Million Hack

Bithumb, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea by trading volume, is halting asset deposit and withdrawal services after hackers stole 35 billion won (or $31 million) from the platform.

The company said in an announcement today that the hack happened between late Tuesday night until early Wednesday morning Korean time. Though Bithumb has yet to disclose which cryptocurrency or in what amount had been damaged, it said in the announcement that the loss will be covered by the platform.

Meanwhile, the company said other assets have been moved to a cold wallet that stores cryptocurrencies in an offline environment that is not accessible through the internet. As such, Bithumb said investors should "immediately discontinue depositing cryptocurrencies until further notice."

The exchange has not responded to CoinDesk's request for comment.

As of press time, Bithumb is seeing over $300 million 24-hour trading volume on its platform, making it currently the sixth largest exchange in the world, data from CoinMarketCap shows.

The hack marks the second incident in less than two weeks in South Korea. As previously reported by CoinDesk, Coinrail, a smaller cryptocurrency exchange in the country also reported that it was hacked on June 10.

Though the platform did not disclose the amount of the damage, other sources suggested at the time that $40 million worth of cryptocurrencies could be at risk.

CoinDesk will continue monitoring the evolving situation.

Korean won image via Shutterstock

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