Major Ethereum Withdrawal From UpBit: Is It A Hack?

A major Ethereum withdrawal of 342,000 (ETH) withdrawal from the wallet of the exchange, were reported by Upbit one of the four biggest crypto exchanges on the market. Upbit states that the amount will be covered by its corporate funds, whilst the knowledge about facts around the withdrawal remains vague so let’s try to find out more about it in the latest Ethereum news today.

In a still unexplained action that looks like a hack, Upbit published an official statement on its website, stating that there were a major ethereum and definitely unconventional withdrawal of assets worth around $51million (342,000 ETH) from the exchanges’ hot wallet.

Still, at this moment, Upbit has not filed any report to the Internet and Security Agency of South Korea, which is the usual protocol involving hacks of crypto exchange firms made in South Korea. The initial flagging of the withdrawal was done by the crypto transaction monitoring bot “Whale Alert” which flamed speculation on social media about another hacking of a cryptocurrency exchange platform. All cryptocurrencies are moved from hot wallets to cold wallet storage, stated Upbit.

All activity including depositing and withdrawing is suspended by Ubpit for now, as the company is counseling its customers not to deposit any ETH. The platform says that it is investigating the withdrawal’s nature and promised to cover the sum if it happens that it is unreturnable. 

There were numerous cyber-attacks from hackers in the South Korean crypto exchange community. There are some security experts claiming that North Korean state actors are the ones that are behind the reported crypto exchange hacks in South Korea. Just as the South Korean government is set to make even more stern regulations in the sector, the odd $51 million ETH withdrawal happens. According to certain reports, the government of South Korea wants to punish exchange companies for unreported crypto earnings.

The policy is part of a bigger and developing tendency to strengthen the government control that is supposedly hurting the South Korean crypto trading market. One of the most strong cryptocurrency markets in the world is being destroyed by the strong regulatory climate as reported in previous news by DC Forecasts. The strengthening of regulation comes shortly after the 2018’s crypto bear market that had bad effects on the revenue of the cryptocurrency exchange firms. Only Upbit in 2018 managed to make some profit, out of the big four exchanges.