Upbit Hit by $3.4 Billion Fake Crypto Tokens Scam
Upbit, South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange, is currently grappling with a major security breach that has rattled the cryptocurrency community.
This breach came to light on Sunday when Upbit detected a fraudulent deposit where scammers successfully presented a counterfeit coin as the legitimate Aptos (APT) token.
The breach was revealed when Upbit’s system mistakenly identified the counterfeit coin as APT, enabling a bot to deposit a substantial amount of these fake tokens into numerous user accounts, affecting approximately 100,000 accounts with APT deposits.
The total value of the counterfeit APT tokens reached an astounding $3.4 billion, marking one of the largest cryptocurrency security breaches to date. There were also reports of Korean users receiving APT tokens without initiating the transactions themselves.
In response, Upbit swiftly suspended APT deposits and withdrawals for wallet system maintenance. The exchange assured users that services would resume once maintenance was complete.
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Further investigation by a South Korean crypto specialist, Mingmingbbs, revealed that the fake APT tokens were not the native Aptos Network coin but a deceptive token called “ClaimAPTGift.”
The breach occurred because Upbit’s system failed to properly verify the type of coins being transferred, treating all coins as the same APT token. Fortunately, the scammers’ token had a different decimal system (6) than the genuine one (8), preventing significant disruption.
Despite the incident, investors remained resilient, causing APT’s value to rise by just over 5% in the past 24 hours, with the current price at $5.42.
Alexander Stefanov
Reporter at CoinsPress
Alex is an experienced finance journalist and a cryptocurrency and blockchain enthusiast. With over five years of experience covering the industry, he deeply understands the complex and constantly evolving world of digital assets. His insightful and thought-provoking articles provide readers with a clear picture of the latest developments and trends in the market. His passionate approach allows him to break down complex ideas into accessible and insightful content. Follow up on his content to be up to date with the most important trends and topics - stay ahead of the curve with CoinsPress.
