GDAC cryptocurrency exchange hacked for nearly $13 million

Hackers exfiltrated roughly $13 million of digital currencies from the hot wallet of the South Korean bitcoin exchange GDAC, accounting for about 23% of the platform’s total assets.

The attackers’ haul consisted of 60.8 BTC, 350.5 ETH, 10,000 WEMIX tokens and 220,000 USDT.

The platform team paused withdrawals and deposits, notified regulators about the incident, and turned to law enforcement authorities for an investigation.

The exchange also sought assistance in freezing the withdrawn funds on centralized trading platforms and DeFi protocols.   

“We are working with various organisations to do everything possible,” GDAC CEO Sunghwan Han said.

According to a statement, the exchange conducts quarterly audits of storage and reserve sufficiency with the help of a third-party accounting firm. User deposits were backed by more than 100%.

As reported in 2022, the cumulative damage to the crypto industry from hacks, bankruptcies and other incidents exceeded $63.9 billion.