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Photo = Yonhap news |
[Alpha Biz= Kim Jisun] WEMIX, the cryptocurrency project of South Korean gaming company Wemade, has suffered a hacking attack, resulting in the theft of digital assets worth approximately ₩8.8 billion. Wemade has requested an official investigation into the incident. In response, domestic cryptocurrency exchanges Bithumb and Coinone have designated WEMIX as a "cautionary asset."
On Tuesday, the WEMIX team revealed that a malicious external attack targeted the crypto exchange service Play Bridge on February 28, leading to the unauthorized withdrawal of 8,654,860 WEMIX coins. Given that the token was priced at ₩1,020 at the time, the stolen assets are valued at around ₩8.8 billion.
Upon detecting the breach, the WEMIX team promptly established an emergency task force to respond. However, most of the stolen assets had already been sold through various exchanges. Between February 28 and March 3, approximately 8.63 million stolen WEMIX tokens were transferred through 77 different wallet addresses and deposited into global cryptocurrency exchanges such as KuCoin, Bybit, and BitMart.
The stolen assets included both WEMIX Foundation-owned tokens and individual investors’ holdings. Discussions on potential compensation for affected users are still ongoing.
The WEMIX team has since implemented security enhancements, suspending the Play Bridge service and shutting down key servers affected by the breach. Additionally, they have notified 26 exchanges where WEMIX is listed about the incident. Wemade stated, "We are investigating the situation in collaboration with external cybersecurity firm Theori and have requested cooperation from exchanges and law enforcement agencies."
As a result of the delayed and insufficient disclosure of the security breach, South Korean exchanges Bithumb and Coinone have classified WEMIX as a cautionary asset. Bithumb suspended deposits at 12:00 PM, while Coinone halted them at 11:30 AM on the same day.
Alphabiz Reporter Kim Jisun(stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
