Upbit Exchange Disrupted by Counterfeit Token Deposit. $3.4 Billion in Transactions Affected

Upbit, a cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea has encountered a situation where they were tricked into accepting fake tokens causing disruptions to their usual operations.

On September 24th Upbit temporarily halted the deposit and withdrawal services for Aptos (APT) tokens after discovering that some of these tokens were counterfeit. It appears that an unidentified party managed to deposit these tokens, which were mistakenly recognized as genuine APT tokens by Upbits systems. Consequently these false tokens with the label “ClaimAPTGift” ended up being distributed to accounts.

This incident came to light through an account called “Definalist,” which is run by a group of Korean crypto traders. Upbit finds itself in a state of chaos and uncertainty due to this situation. According to Web3 Builders, a news source specializing in web3 technology the trading of these counterfeit coins on Upbit reached a staggering value of $3.4 billion and affected approximately 100,000 account holders.

Currently Upbit is taking steps to handle the aftermath by contacting traders who possess the coins and urging them to return them. In response to this incident Upbit has announced the suspension of APT token deposits and withdrawals while simultaneously engaging in communication, with affected users. Their goal is to clarify the circumstances surrounding this issue and recover the tokens.

Web3 Builders has suggested that efforts are underway to discover and apprehend the individuals for the fraudulent deposit. Given South Koreas regulations regarding customer identification in the cryptocurrency industry it is likely that those involved will be captured and prosecuted.

Definalist has also shared an explanation, provided by a co founder of TunaBot chatbot regarding how the counterfeit APT tokens managed to infiltrate Upbit. The co founder, known as @mingmingbbs attributed the breach to an error during the APT token deposit process that caused the system to mistakenly recognize any coin from the Aptos ecosystem sent to Upbits wallet as a genuine APT token.

Fortunately a disastrous situation was avoided because the counterfeit tokens had six places instead of the original Aptos tokens eight. According to @mingmingbbs if the fake tokens had used an 8 system there would have been a massive influx of overvalued APT flooding into the market causing significant disruption, within the exchange.

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