• Upbit freezes $1.77M in hacked funds and upgrades wallets after major security breaches.
• OTS system tracks stolen assets 24/7, helping exchanges rapidly block suspicious activity.
• The company launches a bounty program rewarding 10% for help recovering or freezing stolen funds.

Upbit, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, announced that it has frozen assets associated with the recent breach, as the team proceeds with its investigation into the theft and the recovery of stolen funds.

Dunamu, the parent company of Upbit, has stated that it has so far frozen $1.77 million in hacked funds as part of its response to the attack. The theft deployed the platform to a temporary lockdown where there was a stoppage of deposits and withdrawals, and the wallet system was completely upgraded.

The issue has been discovered following the identification of irregular withdrawal behavior in Solana wallets. The exchange subsequently validated its payment of the stolen amount of $26.2 million of its corporate reserves, and nobody lost money at the hands of the users.

Upbit Responds to $38M Hack With New Tracking System

The security changes were followed by the breach of the Upbit hack last month, where close to $38 million in Solana-based tokens, such as TRUMP and Bonk, were emptied into a foreign wallet. The incident disrupted several ecosystems and ranked among Upbit’s largest hacks.

To deal with threats like these, the exchange created its own On-chain Tracking Service (OTS) that tracks on-chain flows 24/7. The system tracks route trails, finds linked wallets, and points towards suspicious activities.

In case compromised addresses are detected, the team blocks them and discloses the details to partner exchanges, which instantly freeze stolen funds. Such combined effort resulted in the freezing of assets worth $1.5 million in the initial five hours of the incident. Further collaboration with offshore exchanges has seen that amount rise to $1.77 million.

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Community Bounty Program Introduced to Recover Stolen Assets

The exchange has initiated a program that promotes the involvement of the community in recovering stolen assets. The program is oriented to white-hat hackers, blockchain analysts, security researchers, and exchange operators. It will offer a 10% reward on the amount recovered for those who play a role in locating or freezing stolen funds.

The exchange restored complete deposit and withdrawal services on the 6th, following a complete upgrade of a wallet system and the addition of extra security measures. During the investigation, Upbit had found a critical vulnerability in the wallet, which they fixed. The exchange has stated that it will continue to update as more information comes out.

Also Read: South Korea Probes Lazarus Group After Upbit’s 44.5B KRW Crypto Breach