Gopax halts all trading and withdrawals after hacking threat

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Gopax temporarily halted trading, deposits, and standard withdrawals on November 6, 2026, after receiving an email threatening a cyberattack. The exchange moves 100% of customer assets into offline cold storage following recommendations from South Korea's Financial Services Commission. The preemptive shutdown follows an October 29 hack of majority owner Binance that lost $6.3 billion, alongside security breaches at domestic peers Prabang and Bithumb.

Gopax trading suspension

• ▪South Korean crypto exchange Gopax suspended deposits and standard withdrawals at 05:55 UTC and halted all trading at 06:53 UTC on November 6, 2026, canceling all open orders
• ▪Gopax permitted customers to request manual token withdrawals via its customer support desk during its November 6 trading suspension, warning that manual verifications would cause processing delays
• ▪Gopax announced it initiated the platform suspension to transfer 100% of customer virtual assets in its custody into offline cold storage wallets in accordance with South Korean financial authorities' recommendations

Hacking threat triggers

• ▪The threat against Gopax followed an October 29, 2026 exploit that drained approximately $6.3 billion from hot wallets of parent company Binance, which FBI investigations attributed to North Korean operators
• ▪Gopax suspended exchange operations after receiving an email threatening a potential hacking attack, stating that no hack or attempted theft of customer assets had occurred prior to the shutdown

South Korea cold storage standards

• ▪South Korean financial regulations require domestic cryptocurrency exchanges to hold at least 80% of customer virtual assets in offline cold storage
• ▪South Korean regulators reported that Gopax held 80.54% of customer assets in cold storage at the end of September 2026, the lowest percentage among the country's major won-denominated crypto exchanges

Regulatory response to Binance hack

• ▪South Korea's Financial Services Commission recommended that domestic crypto exchanges maintain continuous 24-hour monitoring of deposits and withdrawals and set aside additional reserve funds
• ▪Following the October 29, 2026 Binance exploit, South Korea's Financial Services Commission proposed raising the minimum cold storage holding requirement for domestic exchanges from 80% to 99%

South Korean crypto security incidents

• ▪South Korean crypto exchange Prabang suspended services after an October 24, 2026 hot wallet breach resulted in the theft of approximately 100 million won ($70,000) in virtual assets
• ▪Gopax disclosed a security breach that began in September 2026 and went undetected until early October 2026, leaking personal data belonging to seven customers and two staff members
• ▪South Korean exchange Bithumb suffered an October 27, 2026 data breach that compromised personal information belonging to 6,444 customers and 715 employees