Gopax suspends trading, withdrawals after email threat

Bitcoin Magazine reported that South Korean exchange Gopax suspended deposits, withdrawals and trading on Friday after an email threat.

Gopax stopped accepting deposits and processing withdrawals at 2:55 p.m. local time, and trading was halted at 3:53 p.m., according to Yonhap News Agency citing the exchange. Direct withdrawals via the website and mobile app are not possible. To get coins out, customers must submit a request to customer support, which then processes them manually after verification.

“To ensure the safe custody of user assets, we plan to transfer all virtual assets to cold wallets for storage,” Gopax said in remarks carried by Seoul Economic Daily. “Direct withdrawals through the Gopax website or app are temporarily unavailable, and customers wishing to withdraw funds should apply through the Gopax customer support center.”

No confirmed loss of digital assets has occurred. The exchange has not announced when regular trading or withdrawals will resume.

Services shut and services still running at Gopax

According to Chosun Biz, all pending orders were canceled when trading stopped. Deposits, like withdrawals, were initially frozen; later local reports said deposit functions had resumed, though online and app withdrawals remained halted. Withdrawal requests via customer support will face delays.

A cold wallet is an offline storage method disconnected from the internet, unlike hot wallets used for routine customer transactions. Gopax stated that moving leftover hot-wallet funds to cold storage reduces the attack surface for anyone who might access its online systems.

A Gopax representative told Yonhap that the email originated from an individual asserting they could compromise the exchange, though the threat remains unconfirmed. “We ask for your understanding, as this measure is intended to prevent financial incidents and protect user assets,” the company said.

Tough week for South Korean crypto exchanges

The suspension comes during a period of heightened scrutiny on exchange security. On Oct. 29, hackers stole approximately $6.34 billion from Binance's hot wallets in what the exchange later called a months-long operation initiated through a fake job interview. The FBI has linked that incident to North Korea; Binance has gradually restored withdrawals and stated it will cover customer losses from its own reserves.

Brazil's Mercado Bitcoin also halted deposits and withdrawals earlier this week following a security breach, with early estimates of questionable transfers around $40 million. Based on information released so far, Gopax's situation differs: it cited a threat email and a preventive freeze, not a verified theft.

Gopax has faced account issues of its own. Beginning in early September, unusual access affected several user accounts, exposing personal data of seven customers and two current or former staff members, with an additional leak confirmed in October, according to Yonhap's Korean service. The exchange considers that incident unrelated to Friday's threat email; no connection has been established.

South Korea's Financial Services Commission has been pressuring local platforms following a series of cybersecurity incidents across financial institutions. Domestic exchanges are already mandated to hold at least 80% of customer cryptocurrency in cold storage. Friday's action takes Gopax fully offline as it evaluates the credibility of the threat.

For bitcoin users on Gopax, the immediate impact is a manual process: funds are moved offline while support personnel individually authorize outgoing transfers. This is significantly slower than a standard withdrawal and represents the trade-off the exchange accepts to safeguard balances.

The challenge for Gopax now is completing the cold-wallet transfer, processing the manual withdrawal queue without any losses, and announcing a resumption date — or finding that the unconfirmed threat becomes the very incident it sought to prevent.