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Photo = Yonhap news |
[Alpha Biz= Paul Lee] The decision on whether to delist WEMIX, the cryptocurrency issued by Wemade, following a hacking incident that resulted in a loss of approximately 9 billion KRW ($6.7 million), is expected to be made by the end of next month.
According to industry sources on Tuesday, South Korea’s top five fiat-to-crypto exchanges—excluding Upbit (Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and GOPAX)—announced that WEMIX has had its investment warning extended by the Digital Asset Exchange Alliance (DAXA). They further stated that a decision on whether to terminate trading support (delisting) will be announced in the third week of April.
On March 4, the WEMIX Foundation officially disclosed that approximately 8.65 million WEMIX tokens, valued at around 9 billion KRW, had been stolen in a hacking incident. The stolen tokens were allegedly liquidated across seven global exchanges, including KuCoin, BitMart, Bybit, Bitget, HTX, Bit2Me, and MEXC.
Shortly after, a controversy arose over the timing of the disclosure. It was revealed that the hack actually occurred on February 28, four days before the official announcement. In response, DAXA designated WEMIX as a cautionary asset on the same day of the announcement, citing misleading disclosure, and suspended deposits.
WEMIX Foundation CEO Kim Seok-hwan held an emergency press conference the previous day, stating, "There was absolutely no intention to cover up or delay the announcement," explaining that concerns over potential further attacks and market panic led to the delay in disclosure.
However, the foundation has yet to provide a clear explanation for the hack’s root cause. Kim stated that "in mid-July 2023, an employee uploaded relevant files to a public repository for development convenience," suggesting this could be the most probable cause of the breach, though not confirmed with certainty. Regarding speculation that the North Korean hacking group "Lazarus" was behind the attack, he said, "After working with external security experts, there is no strong evidence pointing to Lazarus at this time."
Despite the CEO's explanation, concerns about WEMIX’s potential delisting persist. The DAXA listing guidelines, established in July 2023 in accordance with South Korea’s Virtual Asset User Protection Act, include a clause stating that coins affected by an unidentified hacking incident cannot be listed. This implies that a cryptocurrency subject to an unresolved security breach could face delisting.
WEMIX had previously been delisted from all five major South Korean exchanges (Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and GOPAX) in December 2022 due to circulation violations and misinformation. However, it was later relisted on all except Upbit.
Meanwhile, despite the postponement of the delisting decision, WEMIX’s price continued to decline. As of 7:07 PM on Bithumb, WEMIX was trading at 835 KRW, down 3.91% from the previous day.
Alphabiz Reporter Paul Lee(hoondork1977@alphabiz.co.kr)
