Bithumb Claims to Have Retrieved $14 Million in Hacked Cryptos

The Korean exchange says it has clawed back some of the millions lost in a theft of cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, XRP and bitcoin cash.

AccessTimeIconJun 28, 2018 at 11:00 a.m. UTC
Updated Sep 13, 2021 at 8:07 a.m. UTC
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South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb says it has almost halved the losses arising from a recent hack.

As previously reported by CoinDesk, Bithumb, one of the largest crypto exchanges in South Korea and the world by trading volume, was hacked on June 20  – an event that saw 35 billion Korean won ($31 million) in various cryptocurrencies stolen.

The company published a progress update on Thursday, claiming that it has now reduced that damage to 19 billion won ($17 million) after collaborating with worldwide exchanges to retrieve some of the funds, as well as to try and prevent further losses.

In today's update, Bithumb also disclosed for the first time that 11 crypto assets were stolen during the breach. Notably, bitcoin accounted for the largest loss, with 2,016 BTC taken – an amount worth $12 million at press time.

Other major cryptocurrency losses include 2,219 ether, 692 bitcoin cash and 5.2 million XRP, worth around $950,000, $487,000 and $2.4 million, respectively, based on the latest price data from CoinDesk. The remainder comprised of lesser known cryptocurrencies, including significant amounts of aelf, golem and kyber network tokens.

The exchange further explained that the incident is still not yet fully concluded and, as such, it will continue its suspension of asset deposits and withdrawals on the platform. So far, Bithumb has not disclosed an expected timeline for the resumption of a full service.

Following the last week's heist, 24-hour trading volume on Bithumb has dropped significantly – from $400 million at the time to $124 million currently – data from CoinMarketCap shows.

Korean won image via Shutterstock

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