Key facts
- GOPAX said it plans to move all crypto assets to offline wallets, citing financial regulators' recommendations.
- Customers can still request withdrawals through GOPAX's support center, but manual verification and approvals may delay processing.
- Financial Supervisory Service data showed GOPAX held 80.54% of user assets offline at the end of September, near the 80% minimum.
- The FSC reported cybersecurity deficiencies at 130 of 555 financial companies reviewed nationwide in October.
- The FSC named GOPAX operator Streami and exchange Prabang among 16 companies involved in earlier security incidents.
- Prabang suspended services after abnormal hot-wallet withdrawals on October 24 and reported about 100 million won ($70,000) in losses, per Yonhap.
South Korea's GOPAX suspended trading, deposits and standard withdrawals on November 6 after receiving an email threatening a hack, according to local newspaper Kyunghyang Shinmun. A GOPAX representative told the newspaper that no hack or attempted theft had occurred at that point.
GOPAX said it halted deposits and standard withdrawals at 5:55 am UTC and stopped trading at 6:53 UTC, according to a second announcement. All unfilled orders were canceled. The exchange said it plans to transfer all crypto assets to offline wallets to protect users following a series of leaks and hacking incidents affecting financial institutions, and its notices cited financial regulators' recommendations.
Customers can still request withdrawals through GOPAX's support center, but the exchange warned that manual verification and approvals could delay processing. Cointelegraph said it reached out to GOPAX for comment and had not received a response by publication time.
The suspension came days after South Korea's Financial Services Commission urged domestic exchanges to increase cold-wallet holdings following the $6.3 billion Binance hack. South Korean exchanges must keep at least 80% of customer crypto assets in cold storage. Financial Supervisory Service data previously showed GOPAX held 80.54% of user assets offline at the end of September, near the required minimum.
In October, the FSC reported cybersecurity deficiencies at 130 of 555 financial companies reviewed nationwide. The regulator also identified GOPAX operator Streami and crypto exchange Prabang among 16 companies involved in earlier security incidents, prompting plans for tighter cybersecurity oversight.
Prabang also suspended services after detecting abnormal withdrawals from its hot wallet on October 24. The exchange reported about 100 million won ($70,000) in losses, according to Yonhap News Agency, and said it would reimburse affected customers using company funds.