UPDATED 04:52 UTC, 7 Nov: Gopax reported the threat email to financial authorities and will announce later whether the threat was genuine and when services restart, ZDNet Korea reported on Saturday morning Korea time (translated). Gopax’s notice said the steps followed financial authorities’ recommendations after a run of data leaks and hacks at financial firms, News1 reported via Financial News. Withdrawals can still be requested through customer support and are processed manually. No asset loss has been reported.

At a glance

  • Gopax suspended digital-asset withdrawals around 14:55 Korea time on Friday 6 Nov and halted trading at 15:53, cancelling unfilled orders, Herald Business reported.
  • The exchange says no hack or customer-asset loss has been confirmed. It is moving user assets — including balances that sat in hot wallets — into cold storage and has not set a restart time.

South Korea’s Gopax stopped withdrawals and then trading on Friday afternoon after receiving a single email that implied a hacking attempt, Herald Business wrote, quoting the exchange. The paper said the authenticity of the message had not been verified, but Gopax judged that asset-protection steps could not wait.

What changed on Friday

Withdrawals through the website and app were cut first. About an hour later trading stopped and open orders were cancelled. Users who still need to take funds out must file a separate request with customer support, the paper said, rather than using the usual withdrawal flow.

Gopax told Herald it would move customer assets into cold wallets — storage kept offline — including assets that had been in hot wallets. “The timeline for resuming services has not yet been determined,” a Gopax official said, according to the paper. “We plan to move the assets first and then verify their security.”

JKN carried the same outline of a pre-emptive halt after a threat email.

Why the timing matters in Korea

The stoppage lands days after Korea’s FSC meeting with exchanges after the Binance hack, when regulators pressed Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, DigitalX, Gopax and others on security readiness following the Binance hack. Korean law already requires exchanges to keep at least 80% of customer crypto value in cold wallets; Friday’s move is an operational freeze, not a new rule.

What we don’t know yet

Gopax has not published a forensic finding that an intrusion occurred. It has not named the sender of the email, quantified balances moved, or said when deposits, trading or automated withdrawals will return. No Korean regulator statement on this specific halt was in the Herald or JKN reports we used.

Next

Watch Gopax’s customer notice channels for a restart timetable, and any FSC or FSS comment if the halt stretches. Until then, the confirmed facts are the suspension times, the cold-wallet transfer plan, the cancelled orders, and the exchange’s statement that no loss is confirmed.

This article is for information only and is not investment advice.