After $31 million hack, crypto exchange Bithumb halts withdrawals

Bithumb, the conglomerate of cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea, abandoned its services subsequent to them losing 35 billion won (or $31 million) from the platform as a result of a manifested hack.  Apparently, their asset deposit is also kept at a standstill till further action. The incident occurred between late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning.

However, as per a report by CoinDesk, this is not for the first time that such a mishap has happened. The recent hack marks the second incident in less than two weeks in South Korea. Another smaller cryptocurrency exchange suffered a similar fate on June 10, 2018.

The exact amount of the loss and information about which cryptocurrency has been damaged, is yet to be revealed by Bithumb. But the company is giving assurance to the public that whatsoever be the number, the loss will be covered by the platform. Other sources put forward that around $40 million worth of cryptocurrencies may perhaps be in danger.

Bithumb has requested all their investors to kindly discontinue depositing cryptocurrencies immediately until any further notice issued by them. The company has moved all their existing assets at a safe place to a cold wallet which will preserve cryptocurrencies in an offline environment which is inaccessible on the net.

At this point in time, Bithumb is rank ed 6 and is one of the largest exchanges in the world. The news has badly affected the already volatile crypto market.