Bithumb, one of the most important cryptocurrency exchange platforms in South Korea, announced on June 21 that it has been working with other exchange houses and government agencies to find a method that will allow them to recover the funds stolen recently by hackers from their reservations .
The company published through a press release to inform its clients that they work with other international exchange houses and South Korean security agencies to identify a successful method that allows them to recover the funds stolen by hackers directly from their reserves and avoid new monetary losses. Among the agencies involved in the investigation are the Korea Communications Commission, the National Police Agency, the National Internet Development Agency (KISA) and the Internet Security Agency.
Bithumb is trying to reduce the financial damage caused by the hacking of its platform last Wednesday , when a group of hackers subtracted around 30 million dollars to gain access to the system. Although at first the firm notified the theft and then deleted the tweet , nowadays it is known that Bithumb will cover the losses of all its clients and will be able to continue operating very soon.
On this particular point, it was also notified that the exchange house has one billion dollars of annual profits, according to data from 2017 , of which 500 million dollars are available to compensate for the theft of its users . "We would like to make sure that Bithumb currently has around 500 billion KRW in company funds," the company said. "The amount of damage that occurred this time will be completely covered by the Bithumb company's own fund," he said.
Bithumb also made sure that all deposits and withdrawals from the platform have been stopped, as well as the remaining assets were transferred to hardware wallets without an Internet connection as a security method to avoid further monetary losses.
Similarly, it was also stated that the funds of the company and users are stored separately, so believe that the platform may be used soon: "the company believes that they can use Bithumb safely," he said. the notice.
The Blockchain Association of South Korea (KBA) released a statement regarding the theft, calling it "shameful". They also noted that the matter is being well taken by the exchange houses and promises to protect users of future cyber attacks.
The statement also states that KBA will continue to work to develop and apply standards for the protection of user investment in the cryptocurrency markets , improve the security of exchange platforms and establish standard conditions for the resolution of legal disputes, group of regulations that seek to improve the blockchain service.
Bithumb theft generated such an impact on the cryptocurrency market that the price of digital assets at the international level fell by about 200 dollars and the commissions of the Bitcoin network soared due to the massive mobilization of the company's funds to locations more secure.
This is the second theft made to a South Korean exchange house in the last 2 weeks . The first hack was perpetrated against the Coinrail exchange house , from which 30% of the cryptocurrencies stored on its platform in the month of June were stolen.
As if that were not enough, this Asian country has a high rate of cyber attacks that are related to various causes, including policies , highlighting the case of the company Youbit, which declared bankruptcy in December 2017 after a massive theft of its platform.