Cryptocurrency exchange Upbit reports hack and theft of $50 million in ether

At the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, a hack has taken place in which unknowns have stolen a total of 342,000 ether. That equates to a value of more than 50 million dollars or almost 45 million euros.

The CEO of Upbit’s operator Dunamu, Lee Seok-woo, has confirmed the theft, while a possible wallet migration was first considered with regard to the transaction. According to him, 342,000 ethereum has been transferred to an unknown wallet. The company says it has taken a number of measures to protect members’ assets and will reimburse the losses.

It is estimated that it will be another two weeks before bookings and withdrawals on all cryptocurrencies traded by Upbit will resume; that possibility was previously shelved. According to the CEO, all other previous large-scale transfers were not abnormal and in any case not the result of hacks or thefts.

According to The Block, this hack on Upbit is already the eighth to have happened at a cryptocurrency exchange this year. For example, in May there was still talk of a theft of 7,000 bitcoins at Binance; at the time this represented a value of 37 million euros. In July there was another hack at Bitpoint, which involved a theft of almost 30 million euros. These eight hacks at stock exchanges in 2019 would have stolen crypto coins with a total value of 1.44 billion dollars.