Criminals lock away 27 million euros worth of cryptocurrencies at Bithumb

Bithumb, one of the largest Asian cryptocurrency exchanges, has been targeted by criminals. During a change of wallet system, they managed to steal 27 million euros worth of cryptocurrency.

South Korean Bithumb announced to switch wallet systems on Tuesday to increase security. Criminals probably managed to abuse this, according to NewsBTC possibly through a wallet with malicious code.

According to newsBTC, Bithumb already discovered twelve minutes after the wallet system switch that 35 billion Korean won, equivalent to 27 million euros, worth of cryptocurrencies had been stolen. That tweet has since been deleted, but the stock exchange confirms the theft in a statement.

Bithumb has suspended trading pending the investigation and says it will compensate victims. Existing funds have been transferred to so-called cold wallets. Last week, South Korean Coinrail also announced that thieves had managed to steal 33 million euros from the stock exchange.