South Korean cryptocurrency exchange GDAC suffered a security breach over the weekend, losing approximately $13 million worth of digital assets from its hot wallet.
The hack took place on April 9, with an unknown entity hacking GDAC’s hot wallet and transferring 10 million Wemix tokens ($10.7 million), 60.80 bitcoin ($1.7 million), 350 ether ($647,000), and 220,000 USDT stablecoin to a third-party wallet.
The stolen assets represent around 23% of GDAC’s total customer assets on the platform, according to the exchange.
GDAC suspended its wallet systems, including deposits and withdrawals, and shut down related servers to mitigate further losses. The exchange has informed local police and the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) of the incident and is cooperating in the ongoing investigation.
GDAC has not disclosed the security issues that may have led to the breach. The exchange has not provided a timeline for when deposits and withdrawals will resume, citing the need to thoroughly investigate and address the security issues that led to the breach.
Hot wallets, which are connected to the internet, allow for fast deposits and withdrawals but are more vulnerable to hacks. Cold wallets are offline storage solutions that offer greater security against cyber attacks.
GDAC, like other centralized cryptocurrency exchanges, typically uses a combination of hot and cold wallets to manage user funds.
