Key Takeaways
Which assets were affected by the hack?
SOL, USDC and several DeFi and meme tokens including BONK, JUP, RAY, RENDER, ORCA and PYTH.
How did Upbit respond?
The exchange froze Solana-related services, launched a security audit and promised to fully compensate all user losses.
Upbit, South Korea’s largest crypto exchange, has been hit due to a major security crisis after detecting unauthorized withdrawals worth approximately KRW54 billion ($36-38 million) of Solana-based assets.
‘We will reimburse the entire loss’
The funds were moved to an unidentified third-party wallet, leading to an immediate freeze on all deposits and withdrawals at Solana.
The incident, confirmed by Upbit on November 27 marks one of the biggest wallet compromises the platform has faced. Naturally, this raises new questions about security in one of the country’s largest trading centers.
Note to which the team commented:
“We immediately identified the size of the digital asset outflow caused by the abnormal withdrawals and will cover the full amount with Upbit assets to ensure no damage occurs to members’ assets.”
Upbit’s immediate response to the breach was swift and defensive.
The exchange suspended all deposits and withdrawals on the Solana [SOL] network to prevent further outflows while it conducted a full safety audit.
Additionally, researchers began tracking the stolen assets through Solana-based tokens.
Tokens affected across the Solana ecosystem
In addition to SOL and USDC, the attackers also emptied popular DeFi and meme tokens such as Bonk [BONK]Jupiter [JUP]Raydium [RAY]Cause [RENDER]Orca [ORCA]and Pyth Network [PYTH].
The size of the affected tokens suggested direct exposure of Upbit’s hot wallet infrastructure, which manages real-time withdrawals and active trading liquidity.
However, the exchange said it has successfully frozen a number of assets, including a tranche of Solayer during on-chain response efforts.
Solana price promotion
Despite the scale of the hack, Solana’s price remained surprisingly stable.
The value continued to rise, trading at $143.67, after gaining 3.11% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap.
This resilience indicated that the market viewed the attack as an Upbit-specific vulnerability and not a systemic problem within the Solana ecosystem.
More incidents like this
This incident happened exactly six years after Upbit lost 342,000 Ethereum [ETH] – worth about $50 million at the time – in a major hacking incident.
And by October 2024, researchers had recovered just 4.8 Bitcoin [BTC] with the help of the Swiss authorities.
South Korea’s crypto exchanges: winners and losers
This followed a recent analysis from AMBCrypto, which found that the South Korean crypto market is clearly sliding towards a two-tier system.
Giants like Upbit and Bithumb continue to pursue IPOs and higher valuations, while smaller players like Coinone are forced to sell assets just to stay operational.