GOPAX suspends trading and routine withdrawals after hack threat, plans full move to cold storage
South Korean crypto exchange GOPAX halted deposits and standard withdrawals at 5:55 am UTC on Friday and stopped trading at 6:53 UTC after receiving an emailed threat of a hack, local newspaper Kyunghyang Shinmun reported. A GOPAX representative told the paper that no hack or attempted theft had taken place at that point. All unfilled orders were canceled. Cointelegraph had not received a comment from the exchange by publication. Customers can still request withdrawals through GOPAX’s support center, though the firm warned that manual checks and approvals may delay processing.
GOPAX said it intends to move all crypto assets into offline wallets to protect users after a string of leaks and hacks at financial institutions, citing regulators’ guidance. The freeze came days after South Korea’s Financial Services Commission urged domestic exchanges to raise cold-wallet holdings following the $6.3 billion Binance hack. Korean exchanges must keep at least 80% of customer crypto in cold storage; Financial Supervisory Service figures showed GOPAX held 80.54% of user assets offline at the end of September, close to that floor.
In October the FSC found cybersecurity shortcomings at 130 of 555 financial firms reviewed nationwide and listed GOPAX operator Streami and exchange Prabang among 16 companies tied to earlier security incidents, with plans for tighter oversight. Prabang itself suspended services after detecting abnormal hot-wallet withdrawals on Oct. 24 and reported about 100 million won ($70,000) in losses, according to Yonhap News Agency; it said it would reimburse affected customers from company funds.
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