GOPAX Halts Trading and Withdrawals After Hack Threat, Moves All Crypto to Cold Storage

Published November 6, 2026, 12:10 AM PKT. Based on GOPAX's official service notices of November 6, 2026 (primary source), with reporting by Cointelegraph, crypto.news and Unchained on November 6, 2026 (secondary reporting). MABOnChain covered South Korea's emergency exchange checks after the Binance hack on November 2, 2026, and the October 15 cybersecurity wave that named GOPAX operator Streami.

South Korean crypto exchange GOPAX suspended trading, deposits and standard withdrawals on Friday, November 6, 2026, after receiving an email threatening a hack, and said it would move all customer crypto assets into offline cold wallets. GOPAX stopped deposits and standard withdrawals at 2:55 p.m. local time, 5:55 a.m. UTC, and halted trading at 3:53 p.m. local time, 6:53 a.m. UTC, according to two official notices from the exchange, and canceled all unfilled orders. A GOPAX representative told South Korean newspaper Kyunghyang Shinmun that no hack or attempted theft had occurred at that point, and no customer assets had been lost, Cointelegraph reported. Customers can still request withdrawals through GOPAX's support center, but the exchange warned that manual verification and approvals could delay processing, and it gave no date for normal service to resume.

Deposits stopped at 5:55 a.m. UTC, trading at 6:53 a.m. UTC

The shutdown unfolded in two steps within an hour. GOPAX's first notice suspended crypto deposits and the standard withdrawal function on its website and mobile app at 5:55 a.m. UTC, and a second notice halted trading at 6:53 a.m. UTC and canceled every order still waiting to be matched, Cointelegraph and crypto.news reported. The exchange said it would transfer its cryptocurrency holdings to cold wallets, which operate without a direct internet connection, while the suspension is in place. Under the temporary arrangements, customers cannot withdraw crypto directly through the GOPAX website or app. Instead, they must contact customer support and submit a separate withdrawal request, and staff will check and approve each request by hand, so payouts could take longer than usual, the exchange said.

A threat email, not a confirmed breach

The distinction matters, because GOPAX has not reported any stolen funds. The suspension followed an email threatening to compromise the exchange, according to Yonhap News Agency, and a GOPAX official told Yonhap the company had not yet confirmed whether the threat was real. A GOPAX representative told Kyunghyang Shinmun that no hacking activity had taken place at the time, Cointelegraph reported. GOPAX's own notices do not mention a threat against the exchange. Instead, the notices describe the step as preemptive, citing a run of data leaks and hacks at financial companies and saying the exchange acted following the recommendation of financial authorities, Unchained reported, translating the Korean notices. GOPAX did not say any regulator ordered the halt. Cointelegraph said it reached out to GOPAX for comment but had not received a response by publication time.

GOPAX held 80.54% of assets offline, just above the legal floor

The cold-storage move lands on a weak spot for GOPAX. Financial Supervisory Service data showed the exchange held 80.54% of customer crypto assets offline at the end of September, slightly above South Korea's 80% legal minimum under the Virtual Asset User Protection Act, crypto.news reported. South Korean exchanges must keep at least 80% of customer crypto in cold storage, and the Financial Services Commission (FSC) urged domestic exchanges to raise their cold-wallet ratios days earlier, after the October 29 theft of about $6.3 billion from Binance, Cointelegraph reported. GOPAX operator Streami is majority-owned by Binance, Unchained reported. The FSC also reported cybersecurity deficiencies at 130 of 555 financial companies reviewed nationwide in October, and named Streami and crypto exchange Prabang among 16 companies involved in earlier security incidents, prompting plans for tighter cybersecurity oversight, Cointelegraph reported.

A month of Korean exchange security scares

GOPAX is the third South Korean exchange to suspend services or report a security problem in about three weeks. Prabang suspended services on October 24 after detecting abnormal withdrawals from its hot wallet, reporting losses of about 100 million won, around $70,000, and said it would reimburse affected customers using company funds, according to Yonhap. GOPAX itself disclosed on October 16 that abnormal account access beginning in early September had exposed information affecting seven customers and two current or former employees, Finance Magnates reported. The FSC reported 40 incidents at 37 companies between September 30 and November 3, involving about 473,000 personal-information records. MABOnChain reported on November 2 that the FSC had ordered emergency checks of crypto exchanges after the Binance hack, with inspectors examining hot wallet management, approval and signature systems and admin privileges, and a full-sector security meeting with five major banks was scheduled for November 5. The Binance theft, which the FBI attributed to North Korea's TraderTraitor group, drained about $6.3 billion from the exchange's hot wallets, and Bitcoin ($BTC) fell below $77,000 in the days that followed as the market sold off.

Sources

• GOPAX, official service notices, November 6, 2026 (primary source: deposits and standard withdrawals halted at 5:55 a.m. UTC, trading halted at 6:53 a.m. UTC, all unfilled orders canceled, all crypto assets to be moved to cold wallets, withdrawals by support request with manual verification)
• Cointelegraph, GOPAX Halts Trading and Withdrawals After Hacking Threat, November 6, 2026 (secondary reporting: threat email reported by Kyunghyang Shinmun, no hack or attempted theft detected, FSC cold-wallet push after the Binance hack, GOPAX 80.54% offline at end of September, FSC deficiencies at 130 of 555 firms, Prabang October 24 suspension and about $70,000 in losses)
• crypto.news, South Korea's GOPAX halts crypto trading, withdrawals after hacking threat, November 6, 2026 (secondary reporting: suspension times, cold-wallet transfer, manual withdrawals through support, 80.54% offline against the 80% minimum)
• Unchained, Binance-Controlled Korean Exchange GOPAX Stops Trading, Makes Users Email to Withdraw Crypto, November 6, 2026 (secondary reporting: Yonhap on the threat email and the unconfirmed threat, Streami majority-owned by Binance, notices cite financial authorities' recommendation, no regulator order stated)
• Finance Magnates via TradingView, Crypto Exchange GOPAX Halts Trading and Standard Withdrawals After Hacking Threat, November 6, 2026 (secondary reporting: October 16 information exposure affecting seven customers and two current or former employees, FSC report of 40 incidents at 37 companies and about 473,000 personal-information records)

This article is news reporting and is not investment advice.