GOPAX halts crypto trading, withdrawals to move all assets to cold storage

South Korean crypto exchange GOPAX suspended trading, deposits and standard withdrawals Friday after receiving an email threatening a hack, according to local newspaper Kyunghyang Shinmun.

A GOPAX representative told the newspaper that no hack or attempted theft had occurred at that point.

GOPAX said it halted deposits and standard withdrawals at 5:55 am UTC. Trading stopped at 6:53 UTC, according to a second announcement. All unfilled orders were canceled.

GOPAX said it plans to transfer all crypto assets to offline wallets to protect users following a series of leaks and hacking incidents affecting financial institutions. Its notices cited financial regulators’ recommendations.

Cointelegraph reached out to GOPAX for comment but had not received a response by publication time. 

Customers can still request withdrawals through GOPAX’s support center, but the exchange warned that manual verification and approvals could delay processing. 

The suspension came days after South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) urged domestic exchanges to increase cold-wallet holdings following the $6.3 billion Binance hack. South Korean exchanges must keep at least 80% of customer crypto assets in cold storage.