How Crypto Change Upbit Acquired Robbed Once more - Six Years Later, Identical Date

[ad_1] Upbit, South Korea's dominant cryptocurrency trade, suffered unauthorized withdrawals totaling roughly $36.9 million (54 billion gained) early Thursday morning, marking the second time the platform has been breached on November 27.

The trade detected uncommon exercise at 4:42 a.m. native time when Solana-linked belongings moved to an unidentified pockets deal with. Dunamu CEO Oh Kyung-seok disclosed the breach throughout a press convention at 12:33 p.m., simply hours after the corporate had introduced its merger with Naver Monetary.

Upbit’s Six-12 months Anniversary of $50 Million Ethereum Theft

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

The 2019 stolen Ethereum could be price considerably extra right this 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 nations.

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

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) November 27, 2025 Cryptocurrency exchanges typically face a tough atmosphere. Greater than two years in the past, the trade reported that in simply the primary half of 2023, there had been 159,000 tried hacks in opposition to its programs. Its proximity to North Korea and the presence of the Lazarus hacking group within the area add to the dangers.

Because the begin of this yr, cybercriminals from communist North Korea are estimated to have stolen greater than 2 billion {dollars}’ price of cryptocurrencies.

Sizzling Pockets Compromise Triggers Platform Freeze

“Exchanges are clearly large honeypots for hackers," stated Trezor CEO, Matěj Žák. "Unbiased reviews estimate that extra than 2.5 billion {dollars} has already been stolen in 2025, together with a single 1.5 billion greenback breach on the Bybit trade. And since safety is a shifting goal, this downside will not be going away."

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

"We will absolutely cowl the loss with Upbit's personal belongings in order that clients will not be affected in any method," the corporate said, assuring customers no motion would be required to recuperate their funds. Buying and selling continues to operate usually on the platform, although customers can't transfer belongings on or off the trade throughout the ongoing safety evaluate.

Breach Comes Day After $10 Billion Naver Deal

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

South Korean monetary authorities have launched on-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 in regards to the perpetrators behind the most recent incident.