Korea’s Bithumb Exchange Allegedly Loses Millions of Korean Won due to Hack

Hacking exchanges are not all that uncommon in the world of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Unfortunately, such incidents have caused millions in damages over the past few years. Korean news sources now claim the Bithumb exchange has been hacked as well. The total damage remains unknown, but it is expected tens of millions of KRW have been stolen. This is another black day for Bitcoin exchanges all over the world.

Bithumb has made quite a name for itself as a Bitcoin exchange. The Korean platform quickly became one of the world’s largest exchanges of trading volume. That success also attracts the wrong kind of people, unfortunately. More specifically, the company has recently been hacked, according to local news sources. It is believed someone gained access to the platform’s backend. No one knows for sure how this happened, though.

Bithumb Exchange is Dealing With a lot of Issues

Interestingly enough, this alleged hack doesn’t disrupt day-to-day operations. In fact, Bithumb is just operating as normal. Several customers are complaining about missing balances, though. Not addressing the situation is not a good idea by the company, that much is certain. If a hack has indeed taken place, they need to issue an official statement sooner rather than later. The company acknowledges some of its users have their information stolen. However, they don’t mention funds gone missing, though.

Moreover, it appears Bithumb has been targeted for several days now. The company fought off a major DDoS attack not too long ago. The platform was inaccessible for some time, but matters were resolved swiftly. The company plans to reimburse users who have their personal information stolen. A nice gesture, but it does not address the elephant in the room. The world deserves to know whether or not funds have been stolen.

Kyunghyang Shinmun states Bithumb is in contact with relevant authorities regarding this incident. It appears this hack is another example of exchanges growing beyond their capacity. More specifically, the influx of new traders puts a strain on the available resources. We have seen other exchanges suffer from this issue as well throughout the years. None of these platforms are built to scale quickly, that much is evident. Events like these do not bode well for the future of cryptocurrency.