How Crypto Exchange Upbit Got Robbed Again – Six Years | Crypto News

How Crypto Exchange Upbit Got Robbed Again – Six Years | Crypto Work Pro

Upbit,
South Korea’s dominant cryptocurrency exchange, suffered unauthorized
withdrawals totaling roughly $36.9 million (54 billion received) early
Thursday morning, marking the second time the platform has been breached on
November 27.

The
exchange detected uncommon exercise at 4:42 a.m. native time when Solana-linked
belongings moved to an unidentified wallet handle. Dunamu CEO Oh Kyung-seok
disclosed the breach during a press convention at 12:33 p.m., simply hours after
the company had introduced its merger with Naver Financial.

Upbit’s Six-Year
Anniversary of $50 Million Ethereum Theft

The timing
raised quick issues amongst security analysts. Exactly six years earlier,
on November 27, 2019, Upbit misplaced 342,000 Ethereum tokens value roughly
$50 million in what authorities later confirmed was an assault by North Korean
hacking teams Lazarus and Andariel. At the time of that theft, Ethereum traded
round $146 to $149 per coin, placing the haul at roughly 58 billion received.

The 2019
stolen Ethereum can be value considerably more at the moment – roughly $1.04
billion at present costs. South Korean investigators finally decided
that the attackers transformed 57% of the stolen funds by three
cryptocurrency exchanges they managed, whereas laundering the rest
by 51 exchanges throughout 13 international locations.

Upbit(@Official_Upbit) has been hacked — 54B KRW (~36.8M USD) in belongings on #Solana have been transferred to unknown wallets.https://t.co/plbmBz2G4Nhttps://t.co/YOHoqDVfqa pic.twitter.com/DM5BxSTtXA

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) November 27, 2025

Cryptocurrency
exchanges typically face a tough setting. More than two years in the past, the
exchange reported that in simply the primary half of 2023, there
have been 159,000 tried hacks in opposition to its systems. Its proximity to North
Korea and the presence of the Lazarus hacking group within the area add to the
dangers.

Since the beginning of this 12 months, cybercriminals from communist North Korea are estimated to have stolen more than 2 billion {dollars}’ value of cryptocurrencies.

Hot Wallet Compromise
Triggers Platform Freeze

“Exchanges are
clearly large honeypots for hackers,” mentioned Trezor
CEO, Matěj Žák. “Independent stories estimate that more
than 2.5 billion {dollars} has already been stolen in 2025, together with a single
1.5 billion greenback breach on the Bybit exchange. And since security is a transferring
goal, this drawback isn’t going away.”

Thursday’s
breach affected a number of Solana-based tokens together with SOL, USDC, BONK, JUP,
RAY, RENDER, ORCA, and PYTH. The company confirmed the intrusion was restricted to
sizzling wallet storage, with cold wallet reserves remaining secure. Upbit
instantly moved remaining belongings into cold storage and suspended all deposit
and withdrawal providers throughout the platform as a precautionary measure.

“We
will absolutely cowl the loss with Upbit’s own belongings in order that clients will not be
affected in any manner,” the company said, assuring customers no motion would
be required to recuperate their funds. Trading continues to operate usually on
the platform, although customers can’t transfer belongings on or off the exchange during the
ongoing security review.

Breach Comes Day After $10
Billion Naver Deal

The hack
arrived at a delicate second for Dunamu. Just in the future earlier, the company
finalized a $10.3 billion stock-swap merger with Naver Financial, creating one
of South Korea’s largest digital finance entities. Under the settlement, Naver
Financial will difficulty 87.5 million new shares at a 1:2.54 ratio, making Dunamu a
wholly owned subsidiary.

South
Korean financial authorities have launched on-web site inspections to evaluate the
state of affairs. The repeated breach on the identical calendar date, mixed with North
Korean involvement within the earlier assault, has sparked hypothesis concerning the
perpetrators behind the newest incident.

This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.