[2018-06-28]Bithumb Has Recovered Nearly Half of Funds Stolen in Last Week’sHack

[Psicotico]

Bithumb Has Recovered Nearly Half of Funds Stolen in Last Week’s Hack.

Cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb claims that it has recovered nearly half of the funds stolen in a recent high-profile hack at the South Korean trading platform.

As CCN reported, hackers breached Bithumb’s online hot wallets on June 20, making off with approximately 35 billion KRW (~$31 billion) before the exchange operator was able to transfer its remaining hot wallet assets to offline cold wallets.

The Seoul-based company on Thursday announced that it had already recovered more than 45 percent of the stolen funds, reducing the value of the still-missing funds to just under 19 billion KRW (~$17 million) as of June 27.

Bithumb said that the recovery was made possible through coordination with other cryptocurrency exchanges located throughout the world. Presumably, these exchanges seized the funds when the hackers attempted to launder them.

“The main reason for the reduction of the damage is due to the ongoing participation, support and cooperation of cryptocurrency exchanges and cryptocurrencies foundations [sic] across the world,” Bithumb said in the announcement. “Also our quick response to the cyber-attack by removing cryptocurrencies from hot wallet to cold wallet effectively contributed to reducing the overall damage.”

Notably, the exchange revealed in the announcement that the hackers had breached the hot wallets for 11 different currencies. Nearly three-fourths of the outstanding funds are denominated in BTC, while the remainder is spread out across BCH, ELF, ETH, ETHOS, GNT, HSR, KNC, OMG, VEN, and XRP. The nature of the stolen assets had not previously been made public.

Even before recovering these funds, Bithumb vowed that it would fully compensate users out of its reserves, which allegedly hold $450 million.

As of Thursday evening local time, withdrawals remain frozen at the exchange, and Bithumb continues to advise users against making deposits, though it said that many users have not adhered to this request.

Nevertheless, trading remains open at the exchange, though volume has declined considerably since the hack. Even so, Bithumb still ranks as the world’s 10th-largest cryptocurrency exchange with a 24-hour volume of about $131 million. The exchange is currently the second-largest platform in South Korea, trailing fellow Seoul-based exchange UPbit by approximately $13 million in single-day volume.

https://www.ccn.com/bithumb-has-recovered-nearly-half-of-funds-stolen-in-last-weeks-hack/

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[InvoKing]

This is a good news for the Bithumb users and for the whole cryptocurrencies communities and the market.
The cooperation between different exchanges made the partial recover of the funds possible. We need for real a crypto-interpol!

[Harlot]

And to think that cryptocurrencies stolen are good as gone, think again. Even if this assets exist digitally they are still leaving some footprints behind and is still can be possibly trace to where it can be find. And with some of the government backing up their exchanges we now know that we are also backed up by our own laws, especially this Korean exchange as they are licensed and legally operating in their country they also know that they are kind of liable for their security flaws in their own system. This thieves have their days numbered.

[Proton2233]

This is a good news for the Bithumb users and for the whole cryptocurrencies communities and the market.
The cooperation between different exchanges made the partial recover of the funds possible. We need for real a crypto-interpol!

Crypto Interpol is a good idea but I'm not sure that in time someone will not want to take over your funds. Such organizations are led by people and people for money are capable of everything. We have already seen many examples of how exchanges independently freeze user funds before providing information about the origin of cryptocurrencies, which in my opinion is a kind of fraud.

[hatshepsut93]

And to think that cryptocurrencies stolen are good as gone, think again. Even if this assets exist digitally they are still leaving some footprints behind and is still can be possibly trace to where it can be find. And with some of the government backing up their exchanges we now know that we are also backed up by our own laws, especially this Korean exchange as they are licensed and legally operating in their country they also know that they are kind of liable for their security flaws in their own system. This thieves have their days numbered.

It depends on a coin, if thieves are stealing Monero or some other coin with strong privacy, there's no chance it will get recovered. And many developers working on bringing better privacy to Bitcoin, Ethereum and some other coins, so this recovery method might no longer work.
Also, Bithumb might not be telling us the whole story, most of the time crypto thieves run stolen coins through mixers. If this was the case, then it means that either chainanalysis got very good and can quickly undo mixing, or some mixers are co-operating with exchanges/law enforcement.

[kevoh]

If this was the case, then it means that either chainanalysis got very good and can quickly undo mixing, or some mixers are co-operating with exchanges/law enforcement.

It is most likely that there is some form of cooperation between the exchanges and the government. But in this instance, it's a good form of cooperation as criminals hiding under the canopy of privacy are unearthed, arrested and prosecuted.

[aso118]

This is a good news for the Bithumb users and for the whole cryptocurrencies communities and the market.
The cooperation between different exchanges made the partial recover of the funds possible. We need for real a crypto-interpol!

Exchanges freezing accounts is not good. It again reminds me of the legacy financial system, where banks are just waiting for the government to issue orders and readily freeze their customer accounts.
Next time, hackers will use mixers and decentralized exchanges when dealing with hacked funds.

[InvoKing]

This is a good news for the Bithumb users and for the whole cryptocurrencies communities and the market.
The cooperation between different exchanges made the partial recover of the funds possible. We need for real a crypto-interpol!

Exchanges freezing accounts is not good. It again reminds me of the legacy financial system, where banks are just waiting for the government to issue orders and readily freeze their customer accounts.
Next time, hackers will use mixers and decentralized exchanges when dealing with hacked funds.

It is unethical to let a hacker trade in your exchange with a hacked money. The exchanges needs to freeze it. If the hacker used a mixer then it will be very hard to spot it, however, this exchange will be stopped and its owner will be brought to courts for sure if he is from USA or European country.