Bithumb receives commendation from police for preventing 800 million won in phishing losses

Bithumb announced Friday that it received a letter of commendation from the Korean National Police Agency in recognition of its contributions to preventing phishing-related digital asset losses.

The agency's National Investigation Headquarters presented the commendation Thursday at a ceremony in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, where it signed a memorandum of understanding with domestic cryptocurrency exchanges on preventing and eradicating phishing crimes.

Since March, Bithumb has operated a system that cross-references data on users who have installed malicious apps — provided by the police agency's integrated response unit — against its own membership database, flagging those accounts as "Caution" targets. The exchange notified police in real time of 66 users who subsequently showed signs of suspicious trading activity, helping prevent roughly 800 million won (about $523,000) in losses.

In one notable case, Bithumb and police together blocked a transaction by a user who, after being infected by a malicious app, was deceived by a criminal impersonating a government official and attempted to purchase and withdraw approximately 150 million won worth of digital assets. In another case, the exchange detected and stopped a suspicious transaction in which a user, acting on instructions from a financial fraudster, opened a new account and attempted to transfer 88.9 million won.

Bithumb currently operates a security system that automatically restricts transactions when a remote-control app is detected while the exchange's app is running. The company is also developing a system that would automatically issue warnings and suspend service access upon detecting malicious apps.

"Bithumb has continuously upgraded its security framework to detect phishing site solicitation and suspicious transactions at an early stage," said Byun Seung-mu, Bithumb's chief compliance officer. "We will continue to strengthen our user protection capabilities through cooperation with the Korean National Police Agency."

Meanwhile, the Korean National Police Agency signed MOUs with five major domestic digital asset exchanges — Dunamu, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Streami. Under the agreements, the pilot public-private information-sharing framework the agency has operated since March will be upgraded to a permanent cooperative system, with exchanges incorporating real-time data provided by police into their own suspicious transaction detection systems.