GOPAX Halts Crypto Trading and Requires Email Requests for Withdrawals

Withdrawals now require manual review

GOPAX’s shift to cold storage has left customers with a narrower route to their crypto: submit a withdrawal request by email and wait for staff to review it. The South Korean exchange, operated by Streami, which Binance majority-owns, has suspended trading, crypto deposits and its standard withdrawal service. Its notices give no date for restoring normal operations, leaving customers without a clear timetable for when routine access might return.

The exchange stopped crypto deposits and withdrawals through its website and app at 2:55 p.m. local time Friday. Trading followed at 3:53 p.m., with all unmatched orders canceled, according to a follow-up notice. That sequence matters: customers lost the ordinary online withdrawal path before trading ended, and then any orders still waiting to execute were canceled. GOPAX says employees will inspect and approve emailed requests, so processing may take longer than usual.

For now, customers can withdraw only to a personal wallet registered with GOPAX, not to another exchange, the company’s help-center guide says. That restriction narrows the options for people who normally move assets between trading venues, and requires them to have an eligible personal wallet on record. The notices don’t clarify whether Korean won deposits or withdrawals are affected, so the scope of the service disruption remains incomplete.

Threat report adds uncertainty

GOPAX called the move preemptive, citing a series of data leaks and hacks at financial companies and saying it acted “following the recommendation of financial authorities,” according to Unchained’s translation of the initial notices. The company did not say authorities ordered it to suspend service. That distinction leaves the decision framed as GOPAX’s own precaution, informed by authorities’ recommendation, rather than a publicly described enforcement action.

Yonhap reported that GOPAX received an email threatening to hack the exchange. A company official told the news agency GOPAX had not established whether the threat was credible. Yonhap reported no customer assets had been lost at the time. The report therefore describes a warning under assessment, not a confirmed breach or a reported loss.

A GOPAX representative also told local newspaper Kyunghyang Shinmun that the exchange had not been breached and no one had attempted to take funds, according to Cointelegraph. The company’s public notices don’t mention the threat. That gap makes it harder for customers to understand how the reported email relates to the service suspension: the public explanation points to wider security concerns, while the threat itself appears in media reporting.

Cold storage targets a higher bar

The service shutdown follows a Nov. 2 emergency meeting convened by South Korea’s Financial Services Commission after the $6.3 billion Binance theft. The FSC asked local exchanges to keep more customer crypto offline; GOPAX staff attended. The meeting placed custody practices under scrutiny, and GOPAX’s move shows how a push for more assets offline can translate into immediate changes to customer access.

South Korean rules require exchanges to hold at least 80% of customer crypto offline. Streami was slightly above that threshold, at 80.54% on Sept. 30, while Upbit reported 99.17% and Bithumb 94.76%, Block Media reported Oct. 26, citing Financial Supervisory Service figures obtained by Rep. Min Byung-deok’s office. The comparison gives a snapshot of how far each exchange stood above the existing floor at that point. It doesn’t, by itself, show how those shares changed after the emergency meeting.

The FSC did not set a new minimum at its November meeting. But News1 reported in February that the regulator was studying an offline share near 100% for a second phase of crypto rules, as Unchained reported. Binance’s stake in Streami stands at 67.45%, according to a February report by Herald Business. The reported policy discussion is not a new requirement, but it helps explain why exchanges may face pressure to demonstrate stronger offline custody.

The access tradeoff is already visible

Based on the September figures, about 19.46% of GOPAX customer crypto was online. Moving those assets into cold storage would bring the exchange close to the level reportedly under study. That estimate is tied to the September snapshot; the notices don’t say exactly how much crypto has been moved or whether all customer assets are now held offline.

This is more significant than it looks: custody targets are usually discussed as percentages, but customers experience them as limits on how quickly they can access funds. When assets are held offline, withdrawals can depend on staff review and take longer; GOPAX’s email process makes that tradeoff concrete. (And this is the part most people overlook.) A security measure can reduce exposure to online threats while adding friction to ordinary account use.

If you're working in this space, the practical question is how an exchange explains that balance when it changes the withdrawal process. GOPAX has provided a request route and a wallet restriction, but its notices leave key details open, including the return date for normal service and the status of Korean won transactions. Here's the thing: customers are still waiting to learn when GOPAX will resume routine service. No timetable.

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