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GDAC Korean Crypto Exchange Hacked For $14 Million

Korean Cryptocurrency Exchange GDAC hacked off over 14 million dollars on Bitcoin Ethereum and WEMIX

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange GDAC has fallen victim to a cyber-attack. This cyber-attack resulted in a loss of over $13 million in crypto. The exchange announced the breach yesterday, April 10th. The CEO of GDAC, Han Seunghwan, confirmed that all deposits and withdrawals have been suspended until further notice. Currently, the platform is undergoing emergency server maintenance, hence the halt on deposits and withdrawals.

The incident occurred on the morning of April 9th. On Sunday, the attacker managed to gain control over some of GDAC’s wallets. To be more exact, the hacker started transferring cryptocurrencies into wallets under their control at 7 AM KST. According to estimations, the attacker/s stole around 61 Bitcoin, 350 Ethereum, and some other smaller amounts of altcoins. The biggest stash the attacker got his/her hands on is a bag of 10 million WEMIX with a market value of approx. $11 million. Such an amount of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and WEMIX equates to roughly $14 million right now.

In a statement, GDAC revealed that the stolen assets account for approximately 23% of the exchange’s total holdings. The company has taken swift action to report the incident to the appropriate authorities in Korea. These authorities include the Korean police, the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).

As an attempt to protect itself for the time being, GDAC has requested other cryptocurrency exchanges to block deposits from the attacker’s address. However, the exchange has yet to provide an exact date for when deposits and withdrawals will continue. Seunghwan said that it is difficult to determine an exact date for such action. According to him, this is because there is an ongoing investigation that could reveal more information. As the investigation progresses, the security measures must adapt to the revelations.

The GDAC Hack Highlights Centralized Exchanges’ Vulnerabilities

The recent hack of the Korean exchange highlights how vulnerable centralized exchanges are. Last year, one of the biggest US crypto exchanges, Crypto.com, fell prey to a similar attack. As a result of this attack, the exchange experienced a loss of over $15 million in custody assets. The Crypto.com accident is nothing when compared to the fall of FTX – one of the biggest crypto exchanges in the world. The FTX exchange fell prey to a cyber-attack that resulted in the loss of $663 million, after its solvency scandal. This attack was the last straw and the exchange was forced to shut down. For 2023, the GDAC breach marks the first major hack of a cryptocurrency exchange.

As cryptocurrencies continue their rally upward, the security of centralized entities in the industry remains debatable. Users and regulators alike aren’t fond of centralized cryptocurrency companies, especially exchanges. While most exchanges have started to implement stricter security measures, vulnerabilities still exist.

The cryptocurrency industry has evolved rapidly until today. Today, we have solvent and fast decentralized exchanges (DEX) in the market. These DEX’s often offer huge liquidity and low fees as well. However, this is not the case with all trading pairs as most pairs of less popular tokens are not liquid enough.

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