South Korea’s GOPAX Halts Crypto Trading Amid Hack Threat

A GOPAX spokesperson told the outlet that no breach or theft attempt had taken place at the time of the suspension.

GOPAX initially suspended deposits and standard withdrawals at 5:55 UTC, later halting all trading at 6:53 UTC, as announced separately. Additionally, all open orders were canceled during this process.

The exchange stated plans to move all crypto assets into cold storage wallets to better protect users, citing recent hacking incidents impacting financial institutions and recommendations from financial regulators.

Cointelegraph reached out to GOPAX seeking comments but had not received a reply by the time of publication.

Users can still request withdrawals via GOPAX's customer support, though the exchange warned that processing may be delayed due to manual verification and approval requirements.

This move occurred shortly after South Korea's Financial Services Commission (FSC) urged domestic exchanges to increase the proportion of assets held in cold wallets following Binance’s $6.3 billion hack. South Korean regulations mandate exchanges to keep at least 80% of users’ crypto assets in cold storage.

Data from the Financial Supervisory Service indicated that as of the end of September, GOPAX held approximately 80.54% of user assets offline, just above the minimum regulatory threshold.

In October, the FSC revealed cybersecurity shortcomings at 130 of 555 financial firms it inspected nationwide. The regulator also named Streami, the operator of GOPAX, and the crypto exchange Prabang among sixteen companies previously involved in security incidents, prompting plans to strengthen cybersecurity oversight.

Similarly, South Korean exchange Prabang suspended its services after detecting suspicious hot wallet withdrawals on October 24, resulting in a loss of roughly 100 million won (about $70,000), according to Yonhap News Agency. Prabang announced its intent to compensate affected customers using company funds.

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