Upbit has stopped all crypto deposits and withdrawals after a major security breach that led to millions of dollars in losses.
The exchange said it noticed unusual activity early Thursday involving its Solana hot wallet. This triggered an immediate shutdown of all deposit and withdrawal services while the team investigated.
Kyung-seok, the CEO of Dunamu—the company behind Upbit—issued an apology to users, saying the exchange’s top priority is protecting customer funds.
What happened?
Upbit hasn’t fully explained the cause of the breach yet, but early signs suggest the problem came from its own wallet system, not from a flaw in Solana itself.
Around 54 billion won (about $36 million) worth of crypto was drained from a wallet holding Solana-based tokens. At least 24 tokens were affected, including SOL, USDC, BONK, LAYER, and JUP.
Upbit said it was able to freeze around 12 billion won worth of LAYER tokens and is still working to track the remaining stolen funds. The team is coordinating with different projects and institutions to freeze more of the assets involved.
The exchange promised to fully compensate all affected customers, though it hasn’t yet shared a detailed reimbursement plan.
How Upbit is responding
Upbit has moved all user assets to cold storage and is running a complete security audit on its systems—not just for Solana, but across all networks. Deposits and withdrawals will reopen gradually once the company confirms everything is safe.
Upbit is also cooperating with law enforcement to try to recover more of the stolen funds and identify whoever was behind the attack.
Possible impact on Upbit’s future plans
Although this breach is smaller than the major attack in 2019, it still puts Upbit and Dunamu in a difficult spot—especially now, as they work toward completing a merger with tech giant Naver. After the merger, the company is expected to seek a U.S. public listing.
This incident might slow down those plans.
Upbit is also under closer regulatory watch after recently paying a 35.2 billion won fine for issues related to anti–money laundering rules. With this new security breach, regulators are likely to take an even stricter look at the exchange as it continues operating as South Korea’s biggest crypto platform.
