South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb, renowned worldwide for being one of the most relevant thanks to its transactions volume, announced that it was able to reduce by 45% approximately the level of losses suffered after being hacked a few days ago.
The announcement, made via the company’s official website, asserted that since the cyberattack suffered 10 days ago – when a group of hackers wiped out $ 31 million, or 35 billion Korean won – they have been able to reduce their volume of losses significantly.
Shortly after the attack, the South Korean crypto-trading platform stated that the strategy to follow to solve the situation will be engaging in alliances with other crypto-exchanges. The company explains that it was precisely thanks to that solidarity, participation, support and cooperation of said platforms and other cryptocurrency foundations around the world, that it was able to recover around 14 of the 31 million dollars in digital assets that were stolen, which so far leaves an approximate balance of 17 million to be recovered or compensated in some way to its users.
In addition, it explained that of the 11 cryptocurrencies that were pinched, the bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) were the most impacted, with approximate values of $ 12.3 million and $ 965,000 respectively, which represents little more than 30% of the total amount stolen.
Following the incident, Bithumb froze its users’ accounts and suspended any type of fund movements, due to the security issues they suffered from and as of yet, they have asked customers to refrain from making any deposit until a remote announcement is made, which does not yet have a publication date.
At the time of the hacking, it was mentioned that Bithumb has a $ 500 million fund to cover losses for theft to its users’ accounts, although it was not clear whether they would use it to replace the stolen money, since they are still implementing recovery strategies.
One of the repercussions that the subtraction of funds brought to Bithumb was a momentary congestion of the Bitcoin network, a few hours after this happened.
This is the second time a South Korean crypto-exchange has been hacked over the course of a month. About two weeks ago, Coinrail was also the target of a cyberattack, causing losses of nearly $ 37 million, representing a 30 % of its assets.
