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Magyar28 Oct 2026
Bithumb, South Korea's second-largest crypto exchange, says an outsider broke into an internal employee mobile system and took personal information. No crypto funds have been reported lost, and the exchange says the system is separate from its trading platform.
Exchanges TradeReviewed News Desk
Bithumb, South Korea’s second-largest crypto exchange by trading volume, said on Wednesday that an outsider broke into the internal mobile system its staff use to work and message each other, and that personal information was taken, CoinDesk reported, citing Korean media. No crypto funds were reported lost as of Asian afternoon hours.
What Bithumb has said so far
The exchange found the intrusion on Tuesday and reported it to the Korea Internet & Security Agency and the Personal Information Protection Commission. It told Yonhap it was still analyzing the exact scope, including whether member information was involved.
Bithumb said the breached system runs separately from its trading platform, so customer virtual assets cannot be reached through it. It has not said how many people’s data was exposed or whether deposits and withdrawals were affected.
Part of a wider wave of attacks
Bithumb was one of three financial firms South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said it was assessing on Wednesday. Daishin Securities said personal and credit information for 38,490 customers leaked in an outside attack, while Mirae Asset Global Investments said it blocked abnormal access to some web systems and that investor data was not affected. FSS Governor Lee Chan-jin said major financial investment companies had experienced hacking incidents the day before. Earlier this month he said attacks had hit 16 South Korean financial firms as of Oct. 14.
It is the second blow to Bithumb’s internal controls this year. In February the exchange mistakenly credited customers with 620,000 BTC, then worth more than $40 billion, instead of 620,000 won. CEO Lee Jae-won blamed weak internal controls at the time.
What it means for traders
A breach of staff systems can still lead to targeted phishing, so Bithumb users should watch for emails, texts or calls that use their personal details, and never share login codes. More broadly, the incident is a reminder to judge exchanges on security track record and incident response, not only on fees. Our exchange comparison ranks BingX first and OKX second, and our testing method explains how we score security. You can also see the two leaders side by side in BingX vs OKX. This is not investment advice.
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