Crypto exchange GDAC reported a hack on its hot wallet that resulted in a $13 million loss
Gdac, a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange, lost $13 million in cryptocurrencies from its hot wallet when a hacker transferred the assets to an unidentified wallet. The vulnerability occurred over the weekend and was confirmed in a note to users on Monday by Gdac CEO Seunghwan Han. The event happened on April 9, and the exchange has halted deposits and withdrawals while officials investigate.
According to Han’s message, hackers compromised Gdac’s hot wallet on Sunday. The attackers then transferred $13 million in crypto tokens, including 60.8 Bitcoin (BTC), 350 Ether (ETH), $220,000 in Tether USDT, and around 10,000,000 WEMIX coins.
The South Korean exchange GDAC was hacked on Sunday, nearly $13 million in assets were hacked, including nearly 61 BTC, 350.5 ETH, 10 million WEMIX and 220,000 USDT, accounting for 23% of its total managed assets. https://t.co/LV4OglrfTY
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) April 10, 2023
The stolen tokens total around 23% of Gdac’s total custodial vault. The crypto exchange stated that they had informed the appropriate authorities and were working to retrieve the monies. In the meanwhile, Gdac has banned deposits and withdrawals to protect customer assets, according to Han’s email to users.
At around 7 am on Sunday, April 09, 2023, a hack occurred in the Gdac Hot Wallet, and the following amount of assets were transferred to an unidentified wallet. This is approximately 23% of Gdac’s current total custodial assets… Currently, we are doing our best by collaborating with various organizations. “it is difficult to confirm the resumption point of deposit and withdrawal as the investigation is currently underway”, the crypto exchange said, indicating that withdrawals may be paused until the issue is resolved or the funds recovered.
GDAC immediately suspended its wallet operations, including deposits and withdrawals, to avoid further losses, and shut down related servers in response to the breach. The incident has been reported to local authorities and the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), and the exchange is cooperating with the current investigation.
Gdac is the most recent cryptocurrency exchange or business to be targeted by criminals. Hackers stole nearly $100 million in digital assets from cryptocurrency exchanges last year. Decentralized banking protocols were also subjected to a wave of exploitation, resulting in the loss of assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The attack on Sky Mavis’ Ronin bridge, the chain dedicated to the web3 game Axie Infinity, is still the largest cryptocurrency breach to date. Lazarus, a North Korean cyberterrorist outfit, allegedly stole over $600 million in cryptocurrency from Ronin before funneling some of the funds through the sanctioned cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash.
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