South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Upbit, has suffered a hack that resulted in the loss of digital assets worth 44.5 billion won.

The breach occurred on 27 November, exactly six years after attackers hit the platform with a major 2019 attack that cost it about 58 billion won.

The incident took place a day after Dunamu, Upbit’s operator, announced its merger with Naver.

NaverUpbit said it detected the breach at around 4:42 a.m. on 27 November.

It found that digital assets on the Solana network had been moved to a wallet not authorised by the exchange.

The stolen assets included 24 types of digital currencies, such as Solana.

Upbit immediately halted deposits and withdrawals and began an internal review.

According to Donga, the company said its customer protection protocols were activated as soon as the suspicious transfers were identified.

The company reported the incident to the Korea Internet and Security Agency and the Financial Supervisory Service.

CEO Oh Kyung-seok said,

“We will cover all losses with Upbit’s own assets to ensure that no damage occurs to our members’ funds.”

Under the Act on the Protection of Cryptocurrency Users, Upbit held 67 billion won in reserves for hacking or system failures as of the end of September.

Upbit faced a similar breach on the same date in 2019.

That attack saw more than 342,000 Ethereum coins stolen, worth roughly 58 billion won at the time.

Investigators later concluded that Lazarus and Andariel, two hacking groups linked to North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau, were responsible.

Upbit also absorbed the losses in that case.

Experts expressed concern about the repeated timing of the attacks.

Some said this highlights ongoing security gaps and questioned whether the exchange notified users quickly enough.

Even so, analysts expect limited market disruption.

The Cyber Terror Investigations Unit at the National Office of Investigation has begun a preliminary inquiry and has carried out an on-site inspection of Dunamu.

Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Hong Kong, based on image by freepik