Upbit Faces Sanctions Over $36M Solana Hack in South Korea

South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has opened sanctions proceedings against Upbit, the exchange operator Dunamu, over a $36 million Solana hot-wallet breach in November 2025.

The FSS is scrutinizing Upbit's disclosure timing and crypto security controls following the hack, which saw withdrawals from the exchange's Solana hot wallet for about 54 minutes on November 27, 2025. The total loss came to 44.5 billion won, or approximately $36 million.

The breach was not limited to one token, with reports indicating that the stolen assets included SOL and a mix of Solana ecosystem tokens.

Upbit faced criticism over its delayed disclosure of the incident, announcing the hack only after a merger-related event with Naver Financial had ended on November 27, 2025. The exchange has since frozen 2.6 billion won of the affected assets and covered 38.6 billion won in user losses with company funds.

This is not Upbit's first hot-wallet breach, with a major hack occurring in 2019. The case puts pressure on crypto exchanges that rely on hot wallets for liquidity and highlights the need for clearer sanctioning powers for regulators in South Korea.