Cryptocurrency hacks are becoming so popular that it has become a daily occurrence. The latest is on one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Bithumb. The apparent hack has cost Bithumb a reported loss of $30 million.
Bithumb is a cryptocurrency exchange headquartered in Seoul, South Korea and is a leader in the cryptocurrency market regarding daily transactions. At the end of 2017, the average daily liquidity turnover at Bithumb was equivalent to $ 1.3 billion. It controls most of South Korean’s cryptocurrency trading.
Bithumb has been active on social media Twitter since the hack today morning, posting updates about the precautions to take.
Bithumb urgently ask our valuable customers not to deposit any fund into Bithumb wallet addresses for the time being.
— Bithumb (@BithumbOfficial) June 20, 2018
Bithumb suspended the acceptance of deposits at around 00:53 UTC and started transferring the assets to cold wallets to ensure no further damage was caused.
Confirmations about how the hack took place have still not been revealed, but the nature of it was hinted by a professor at Korea University’s Blockchain Research Institute. He believed that that the hacker gained access to an internet connected ‘hot wallet’ of an insecure smaller asset listed on the platform.
“Since coins in the cold wallets are not at all wired to the internet, it would have been impossible for hackers to steal those in cold wallets unless they physically broke in,” the blockchain expert at the research institute said.
Bithumb is the world’s sixth largest cryptocurrency exchange, and thus such a hack sends a message of caution to several traders of the digital coins in using popular cryptocurrency exchanges.
Charlie Lee, the founder of Litecoin, advised fellow crypto traders in a tweet after the hack on Bithumb. The Tweet Read-
Another day, another hack. Hopefully BitThumb is able to cover this amount, though $30MM is not a small amount.
As I’ve said many times, be smart and only keep on exchange coins that you are actively trading. It’s best to withdraw right after trading. https://t.co/8YpVcHx8tK
— Charlie Lee [LTC
] (@SatoshiLite) June 20, 2018
Bitcoin was enjoying a bull run the last few days; however, after the hack of Bithumb, it fell by nearly $200. The current price of Bitcoin at the time of writing is $6630.
Another South Korean Exchange called Coinrail was hacked earlier in the month, which led to a loss of $37.2 million worth of coins.
Image Source: “Flickr”
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Source: Toshi Times
Original Post: 6th Largest Crypto Exchange in the World Hacked – Million Stolen
