GDAC Exchange Heist Perpetrator Begins Moving Stolen Funds

The hacker responsible for the theft of $13 million from the GDAC exchange on April 9, 2023, has initiated the movement of the stolen funds. This information comes courtesy of a MistTrack Alert posted on Twitter on October 11, 2023.

The South Korean cryptocurrency exchange GDAC suffered a substantial security breach earlier this year, on April 9, which led to the unauthorized withdrawal of cryptocurrencies valued at approximately $13.9 million at the time. The breach prompted an immediate halt to all deposits and withdrawals on the platform, along with emergency server maintenance, as announced by GDAC CEO Han Seunghwan on April 10. It was reported that the heist accounted for nearly 23% of GDAC's total custodial assets. In response to the incident, GDAC promptly alerted local authorities, reported the hack to the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), and informed the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the loss incurred due to the attack.

According to the MistTrack Alert, the initial transfer involved moving approximately 60.8 BTC to the address labeled 1AWcB...mPnAe. Following this transfer, address 1AWcB...mPnAe further transferred around 36.7 BTC to three different addresses: bc1qk...auztv, bc1q2...nc2ah, and bc1qd...tta9k. As of the last observation, the balance remaining in address 1AWcB...mPnAe is approximately 24 BTC.

MistTrack has pledged to continue monitoring the movement of these funds and updating the crypto community. The hack, being a significant event, highlights the continuous challenges faced by centralized exchanges in securing digital assets and ensuring the safety of their users' funds. For instance, a notable occurrence was the hacking of Crypto.com in January 2022, where over $15 million were stolen, and the liquidity crisis at FTX, which saw an attacker draining $663 million from the platform.