Cryptocurrency exchange Upbit suffered an illegal withdrawal of 54 billion won in Solana assets, coinciding with the announcement of the merger with Naver.
Upbit, South Korea’s leading crypto exchange, suffered a major security incident early Thursday morning when hackers illegally transferred 54 billion won ($36.9 million) worth of Solana ecosystem assets from its hot wallet. The incident occurred just as its parent company Dunamu Inc. was preparing to announce a strategic merger with internet conglomerate Naver.
Dunamu CEO Oh Kyung-seok confirmed that the unusual withdrawal was detected at 4:42 a.m. local time. All assets were transferred in a single transaction to an unknown wallet address, including more than 20 Token such as SOL, USDC, BONK, Jupiter, Render Token , and Official Trump. Dunamu quickly took control of the situation after detecting the unusual activity and suspended all digital asset deposits and withdrawals on the platform.
Upbit commits to fully compensate users for damages
In an official statement, CEO Oh confirmed that Upbit will use the company's reserves to fully cover the loss, ensuring that no user assets are affected. The technical team is conducting a comprehensive system audit to determine the extent of the loss and strengthen security measures to prevent similar attacks in the future. The exchange also called on the community to provide information to help trace the stolen funds.
The attack occurred on the same day Naver officially announced its plan to acquire Dunamu through a multi-billion dollar stock swap. At 9:30 a.m. the same day, senior executives from Naver, Naver Financial, and Dunamu gathered at Naver 1784 headquarters to confirm the merger. Naver President Lee Hae-jin emphasized that the deal will create a foundation for Korea to compete in the digital finance sector, combining Naver's AI capabilities with Dunamu's Web3 technology.
The three parties pledged to invest 10 trillion won over the next five years to develop an AI and Web3 ecosystem in the domestic market. Dunamu Chairman Song Chi-hyung revealed plans to build a next-generation financial infrastructure, integrating artificial intelligence with blockchain, and expand global operations. CEO Oh also confirmed that Dunamu is developing a Peg backed stablecoin, while Naver Financial is preparing to launch a stablecoin wallet service in Busan next month.
