Stablecoin issued abnormally; Wemix also hacked for about 9 billion won last year
Wemix, the cryptocurrency issued by Wemade, has been hit by another hack, with losses estimated at about 7.7 billion won ($5.25 million). The breach marks the second major security incident in just over a year, following a hack in March last year.
The Wemix Foundation, a Wemade subsidiary, said Monday on its official website that 5,225,525 WEMIX Dollar (WEMIX$) tokens had been issued abnormally, converted into Wemix and USDC.e, and moved out through a bridge.
The foundation said it was investigating the exact cause and circumstances of the incident, adding that it had identified the attacker's wallet and was tracing the movement of funds. It said it had also requested asset freezes and cooperation from relevant exchanges and stablecoin issuers.
WEMIX Dollar is a dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by Wemade through the Wemix Foundation. The losses amount to about 7.7 billion won.
The incident occurred at around 6:18 p.m. Sunday, when an attacker seized administrator privileges over the smart contract governing WEMIX Dollar. Administrator privileges control core functions such as adjusting token issuance volumes and are granted only to a small number of designated addresses. The seizure of those privileges allowed the abnormal minting of Wemix tokens.
In response, Wemix suspended its bridge function — which allows assets to move from its Wemix 3.0 mainnet to other blockchains — and temporarily halted related services.
This is not the first time Wemix has suffered a security breach. In February last year, the platform was hacked for about 9 billion won. An unidentified attacker illicitly drained approximately 8.65 million Wemix tokens from the Play Bridge Vault.
On top of that, Wemix drew further criticism for notifying users of the incident only about four days after it occurred, and was subsequently delisted from domestic won-denominated exchanges in June last year.
A Wemade official said the company took immediate steps to contain the damage as soon as it detected the abnormal transactions, and that the investigation was ongoing. "We will provide updates through follow-up notices as additional details are confirmed," the official said.
chami@heraldcorp.com
