South Korean exchange GOPAX suspended trading, deposits and standard withdrawals after receiving an email threatening a cyberattack. The exchange said it had detected no hacking attempt or theft, and it is moving customer assets into offline storage. Its offline share of customer assets sat slightly above the legal minimum in September.
GOPAX stopped deposits and standard withdrawals at 2:55 p.m. local time on November 6, then suspended trading at 3:53 p.m. and canceled all outstanding orders. The South Korean exchange acted after receiving a hacking threat, and it said it would transfer its holdings to cold wallets.
GOPAX reports no stolen funds
The suspension followed an email threatening to compromise the exchange. A company representative told Kyunghyang Shinmun that GOPAX received the message but that no hacking activity had taken place at the time.
The exchange called the move a preventive measure to protect customer funds while it reviews potential security risks. It has not announced when regular trading, deposits or withdrawals will resume.
Customers cannot withdraw through the website or mobile app. Instead, they must submit a separate request through customer support, and GOPAX warned that manual checks could make processing take longer than usual.
Offline holdings sit close to the legal minimum
GOPAX is moving assets from internet-connected hot wallets into cold storage. The step follows South Korea's Financial Services Commission (FSC), which urged exchanges to keep more customer assets offline after an emergency meeting on November 2.
South Korea's Virtual Asset User Protection Act requires exchanges to hold at least 80% of the economic value of customer assets in cold storage. According to Financial Supervisory Service data, GOPAX held 80.54% offline at the end of September. Upbit held 99.17%, Bithumb 94.76% and Coinone 85%.
Authorities have been considering raising the minimum to as much as 99%, but they have not announced a final decision.
Binance attack puts exchange security under review
The FSC meeting followed the October 29 Binance attack, which resulted in approximately $6.3 billion in stolen cryptocurrency. GOPAX itself reported a customer information leak in October, which exposed personal information belonging to seven customers and two current or former employees.
Authorities have not established whether the latest threatening email connects to that earlier incident. Another South Korean exchange, Prabang, suspended services after detecting unusual withdrawals from its hot wallet on October 24.
Source: crypto.news
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