Korean Crypto Exchange Coinrail Reportedly Loses $40 Million to a Hack

Months after the Japanese crypto exchange Coincheck’s hack, yet another instance of a crypto hack has been reported. This time, Coinrail, a Korea-based cryptocurrency exchange has reportedly lost more than $40 million to a hack, which took place over the weekend.  Coinrail is a small exchange and ranks within the world’s top 90 exchanges in terms of trading volume.  

A tweet from Coinrail declared a ‘cyber intrusion’ in their system. The heist didn’t involve bitcoin or ethereum, but altcoins. The wallet address belonging to the alleged hacker was identified. According to it, the hackers targeted ICO (initial coin offering) issued altcoins which were issued for various projects. None of the coins hacked belonged to the companies that issued them, the lost coins were from the Coinrail users. The company froze the stolen tokens and put trading on a halt to help out with the investigation. 

Coinrail took its server offline and has moved almost 70 percent of its assets to storage while the case is fully investigated. It is unclear how Coinrail will compensate its users. Some of the ICO projects, however, are taking steps for the same. There have been speculations that Coinrail’s hack is responsible for the recent fall in bitcoin’s value by five percent, but it’s unlikely as the exchange is a rather obscure one.