Bithumb says hackers broke into its internal employee system and took personal data, but crypto funds can't be reached

Published Wed, 28 Oct 2026 02:18:47 UTC · Updated Wed, 28 Oct 2026 13:20:00 UTC · Edited by Bizzle · AI-assisted

🔴BearishA data leak at a major Korean exchange raises phishing risk for its users and adds to a string of setbacks, though Bithumb says crypto funds were not reachable through the breached system.News sentiment, not financial advice. It reflects the likely impact of this news, not a price prediction.

Summary

Bithumb, South Korea's second-largest crypto exchange, said an outside party broke into the internal mobile system its employees use to work and message each other and that personal information was leaked, according to CoinDesk, Decrypt and Cointelegraph, all citing Yonhap News Agency.

The exchange found the intrusion on Tuesday and reported it to the Korea Internet & Security Agency and the Personal Information Protection Commission, Cointelegraph and CoinDesk said.

Bithumb told Yonhap it is still working out whether member information was involved and that the breached system is separate from its trading platform, so "customer virtual assets cannot be accessed through this breach"; no crypto funds were reported lost, CoinDesk said.

Accounts differ on customer data: Decrypt, citing Reuters, said an industry source told Yonhap that some Bithumb customers' personal information had leaked, while Bithumb itself has not said how many people were affected or whether deposits or withdrawals were disrupted, per CoinDesk.

Key facts

Bithumb was one of three financial firms South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service said it was assessing on Wednesday, alongside Daishin Securities and Mirae Asset Global Investments, CoinDesk reported. (CoinDesk)
Daishin Securities said personal information of 38,490 customers, including names, email addresses and mobile phone numbers, leaked after it detected unauthorized access last week, Decrypt reported. (Decrypt)
Mirae Asset Global Investments said it blocked abnormal access to some web systems and that investor information was not affected, according to Cointelegraph and CoinDesk. (Cointelegraph)
FSS Governor Lee Chan-jin had said cyberattacks hit 16 South Korean financial firms as of Oct. 14, CoinDesk and Cointelegraph reported. (CoinDesk)
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao warned on X that leaked exchange data "is mostly used for phishing, SIM swapping, and social engineering," Decrypt reported. (Decrypt)
In February, Bithumb mistakenly credited customers with 620,000 BTC during a promotion; Decrypt put its value at about $43 billion at the time and said the exchange recovered 99.7% of it, while CoinDesk said it was worth more than $40 billion. (Decrypt)