It would appear the cryptocurrency exchange industry is far from drama-free at this time. Although there are numerous companies operating without problems, the same cannot be said for Bithumb. Once South Korea’s largest exchange, it has now become a seemingly prone target for hackers and criminals. The company confirmed a new heist which will spark some very juice mainstream media headlines.
Bithumb Faces Even More Crypto Losses
This entire incident involving the Bithumb exchange will undoubtedly raise a lot of questions. This particular exchange has been subjected to at least one previous incident not that long ago. While one would expect such major companies to learn from their mistakes, it seems a completely new problem has popped up in the process. According to the company’s official explanation, there has been an incident which is labeled as an “accident”.
To put this ordeal in its proper perspective, the company has delayed cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals earlier this week. The reason for doing so remained unclear at the time, although new information has come forward ever since. It appears the company took this rather harsh course of action because of abnormal withdrawals being detected. Its in-house monitoring system immediately flagged some odd behavior by users, which is why these artificial delays were introduced.
After carefully investigating the matter, the Bithumb team ensured all funds from the cold wallet were safe. It turns out this was not an actual hacking attempt, but more of an internal problem caused by the exchange’s own staffers. Referred to by the company as “insiders’, it seems the problem can be considered to be an inside job. What that would mean exactly, remains a bit of a mystery at this time. The KISA and Cyber Police Agency are helping the exchange to look into this string of unusual incidents at this time.
As one would come to expect, the company has also confirmed some funds has been lost in the process. How much funds have been stolen, is a bit unclear, as conflicting figures are circulating on the internet right now. Recovering the funds will be difficult, if not entirely impossible at this stage. It seems unlikely this theft of funds will cause problems for Bithumb customers, which is a silver lining many people will be rather pleased with. It is also expected the deposits and withdrawals will be resumed shortly as well.
On Reddit, this particular incident is getting a lot of attention, albeit not necessarily for the right reasons. A lot of people expect this “inside job” to be something else entirely, although there is no evidence to back up such claims at this time. There is also plenty of speculation as to how much money is missing and which currencies might be affected by this incident. Until further notice by Bithumb themselves, those discussions are mere speculation and not based on actual facts.
Given how this is not the first incident involving the Bithumb exchange, one has to wonder how this will affect the company’s position moving forward. South Korea is still an important region in terms of cryptocurrency usage, although incidents like these have become very common in that part of the world lately. For Bitcoin and altcoins, this news is problematic as well, although it seems unlikely any major markets will be affected.
