Trading stopped within an hour

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange GOPAX suspended withdrawals and trading on Friday, 6 November, as an emergency measure after receiving a hacking threat. The exchange halted standard withdrawals and deposits at 2:55 p.m. local time and stopped trading at about 3:53 p.m., cancelling all outstanding orders.

An unverified threat, and assets moved offline

GOPAX said it had received an email from a group claiming to have hacked the exchange, but it had not verified whether the threat was genuine. No loss of customer assets had been reported, and the company said it had found no confirmed breach. As a precaution, it is transferring most of the assets held in internet-connected hot wallets into offline cold storage, which is not connected to the internet. Regular withdrawals through the website and mobile app were disabled; customers who want funds out must apply through the customer support centre, where requests are processed manually.

A sector on alert

The halt comes during a nervous stretch for South Korea's financial sector. The Financial Services Commission said it had confirmed cybersecurity incidents at 37 financial institutions, affecting about 470,000 customer records. On 2 November the regulator met domestic exchanges and asked them to hold more assets offline, following the theft of about $6.3 billion from Binance. Days earlier, another South Korean exchange, Prabang, suspended services after detecting abnormal withdrawals from its hot wallet on 24 October, with losses of about 100 million won, roughly $70,000. GOPAX has not said when normal trading and withdrawals will resume.