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In South Korea, a Blockchain-based social karaoke platform called Somesing was hacked last weekend. The platform announced that 730 million Somesing (SSX) tokens worth $11.58 million were stolen.

Altcoin’s Price Plummets After Hack AttackAccordingly, the stolen tokens were part of the 504 million undistributed SSX tokens planned to be released into circulation by the end of 2025, and included 226 million SSX tokens held by the Somesing Foundation, which are already part of the current circulating supply. Following the attack, the price of SSX fell by more than 10%, from $0.01851 to $0.015.

Somesing confirmed that “the hack attack has no connection with any member of the Somesing team and is presumed to have been carried out by professional hacker(s) specialized in the theft of virtual assets.” The platform reported the hack to the National Police Agency for investigation and announced plans to notify Interpol. Somesing also added that it is tracking the attacker with the help of the local Blockchain organization Klaytn Foundation and Interpol’s partner company Uppsala Security. After identifying the perpetrator, Somesing intends to freeze the assets and initiate legal proceedings.

Leading South Korean crypto exchanges such as Upbit, Bithumb, and Coinone have suspended deposit and withdrawal services for SSX at Somesing’s request and warned users about increased price volatility due to the security breach. On the other hand, other leading centralized crypto exchanges that list SSX, such as HTX and Gate.io, have not taken any action.

Cybersecurity remains a critical concern in the crypto sector, as seen in the recent hack of the Klaytn-linked protocol Orbit Bridge, which resulted in a loss of $81.5 million earlier this month. Despite this incident, the total volume of crypto hacks in 2023 has dropped by over 50% compared to 2022.

What is Somesing and How Does It Work?Operating on the Klaytn Blockchain, Somesing incentivizes users to upload karaoke recordings by rewarding them with tokens. These rewards are financed by other users who donate tokens to their favorite karaoke singers.

Singers receive 60% of the donated tokens, 20% goes to Somesing, and the remainder is allocated for copyright fees and the community.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.

The South Korean karaoke blockchain platform Somesing lost access to 730 million SSX tokens worth $11.58 million due to a hack.

According to a blog post by Somesing, the hack occurred on Jan. 27. Among the stolen SSX tokens, 504 million were still unallocated tokens that were initially scheduled to go into circulation by the end of 2025, and 226 million SSX tokens were in the possession of the fund.

“As a result, 489 million SSX tokens have been over-circulated compared to the circulation volume under the original circulation supply plan as of the end of January 2024.”

Somesing team The project team stressed that the hacking incident is not associated with any member of the Somesing squad and is believed to have been carried out by professional hacker(s) who specialize in hacking virtual assets.

The platform team involved the police to investigate the incident. The Klaytn Foundation (Somesing operates on the organization’s blockchain) and Interpol partner Uppsala Security are also helping the karaoke platform find the scammer. Major South Korean exchanges responded to the incident by stopping SSX deposits and withdrawals.

Last week, another project, GAMEE, became the victim of a hacker attack. On January 22, unknown persons gained access to contracts for tokens of the gaming platform (GMEE) and stole a total of $7 million. Amid the news, GMEE collapsed by almost 50%. The investigation showed that unknown persons hacked the GitLab service, which is used for storing and managing repositories. Thus, they managed to gain unauthorized access to contracts for GMEE tokens.

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Over the weekend, South Korean Karaoke service SOMESING suffered a hack that stole hundreds of millions of SSX tokens. This hack has made crypto exchanges in South Korea alert users and take provisionary actions to minimize investors’ risks.

Upbit Alerts Over Security Risks On January 29, a press release from the largest South Korean crypto exchange Upbit alerted its users of the SSX tokens hack and the following measures to be taken. The exchange warned the community about the potential security risks and the price volatility the token has faced since the attack.

This announcement came after several crypto exchanges, including Bithumb and Coinone, followed SOMESING’s request to suspend SSX token deposits and withdrawals from crypto exchanges.

The press release stated that Upbit has also suspended deposits and withdrawals of the SSX token following the Foundation’s request and explained that the decision is based on the digital asset becoming a ‘cautionary asset’ according to the Digital Asset Exchange Association (DAXA) designation to protect investors.

As the report details, the ‘cautionary asset’ designation is founded on the security issue that the suspicious movements from SOMESING Foundation wallets represent, as well as the change in distribution volume compared to the distribution plan previously submitted by the foundation.

Consequently, Upbit also labeled the SSX token as a ‘cautionary asset’ and has designated a review period from January 19, 2024, until February 14, 2024, to examine the SSX token. Upbit will conduct a detailed review of the digital asset during this period to determine whether to extend or lift the ‘cautionary asset’ designation or terminate the transaction support.

730 Million Tokens Withdrawn To An Unknown Crypto Wallet On January 27, the decentralized blockchain music platform SOMESING notified its community and holders and revealed the details of the hack that occurred in the early hours of that day.

The hack saw 730 million SSX tokens, worth approximately $11 million at the time, withdrawn to unknown wallets. The foundation detailed on its Medium post that 504 million of the stolen SSX tokens were undistributed tokens originally planned to be circulated by the end of 2025.

The Foundation held the other 226 million withdrawn tokens for their circulation supply plans, and as a result, 489 million SSX tokens are over-circulating.

SOMESING’s investigation determined that no member of its team seemed to be involved in the attack, as the methods used suggest that it was most likely conducted by a professional hacker or group of hackers specialized in targeting digital assets.

As part of the emergency measures taken, the Foundation informed that the case was immediately reported to the Cyber Investigation Unit of the National Police Agency, and the incident would also be reported to Interpol.

Additionally, SOMESING urgently requested that domestic and foreign exchanges temporarily suspend deposits and withdrawals of the SSX token where it was listed to prevent further damage to users.

Lastly, the Foundation detailed its plan to track the transaction history of the stolen SSX tokens in collaboration with the Klaytn Foundation and Official Interpol-partner cyber security company Uppsala Security. The goal is to identify the final destination of the stolen funds and identify the hacker’s wallet to potentially freeze the seized assets and unveil the hacker’s identity to take further legal action.

According to CoinGecko data, the SSX token traded around the $0,017-$0,018 range before the hack, falling to $0,015 in the following hours. At writing time, the SSX token trades at $0.01413, a 12.4% price drop in the last 24 hours.

BTC is trading at $ on the hourly chart. Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView.com Featured image from Unsplash.com, Chart from Tradingview.com

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