South Korean crypto exchange GDAC suffers $13 million hack

In some unsettling news for the crypto world, a group of hackers has successfully stolen about $13 million in different cryptocurrencies from the South Korean crypto exchange GDAC.

The heist took place on April 9 and the perpetrators aimed their sights on the hot wallet of the exchange. In total, the stolen digital assets make up approximately 23% of GDAC’s entire holdings, including 60.8 Bitcoin (BTC), 350.5 Ethereum (ETH), 10 million WEMIX tokens, and 220,000 USDT. The WEMIX tokens are integral to the native crypto network of the same name, and anyone seeking more information can look to official announcements from GDAC.

Notice on #GDAC Exchange Hack Alert⚠️

GDAC Exchange has officially announced that it has experienced a security breach

Please refer to the official announcements made by the Exchange👇
▶️GDAC Announcement: https://t.co/SNRFZTMEYg

WEMIX Medium: https://t.co/7UIwyua72K

— WEMIX (@WemixNetwork) April 10, 2023

Hot wallets, as we know, are an inherent part of crypto exchanges that hold a fraction of the available funds for swift withdrawals and trading. Yet, their connectivity to the internet makes them vulnerable to malicious hacking attempts, resulting in severe financial losses for the exchange and its users if compromised.

In response, GDAC CEO Seunghwan Han has promptly suspended the wallet system and related servers and is working with other crypto exchanges and issuers to prevent the stolen coins from being laundered and hopefully recover them. The incident has also been reported to the Korea Internet & Security Agency, the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit, and the police.

However, investigations into the matter are currently ongoing and the exchange is uncertain when its services will be back up and running.