Crypto: This Japanese mega bank suspends deposits and withdrawals after an outbreak of hacking attempts

Jakarta turns the tap. On October 29, in an already hack-heavy year, Indodax suspended deposits and withdrawals. Indonesia's largest exchange cites a surge in hacking attempts. The platform has not noted any data theft or leaks at this time.

The cut began around noon Western Indonesia time, and the freeze covers both rupees and cryptocurrencies, says Crypto Briefing. Only spot trading remains partially accessible, with balances still viewable.

The logic is that of a sort of bank which would close its counters for the duration of an inspection. The flows are frozen and the vault remains intact, without any asset being able to leave the platform during the checks.

Freezing transfers also serves to protect what already exists. An asset that cannot exit is an asset that no attacker can remotely siphon.

William Sutanto, co-founder and CEO of the platform, announced the measure in a publication on X. This was relayed by Wu Blockchain, while his team conducts security assessments and takes mitigation measures.

Resumption of services will only take place once safety is confirmed, with the promise of keeping customers informed through official channels. A point that users monitor all the more as their funds remain blocked there.

Management wants to reassure the state of the funds, with no suspicious movements noted at this stage, an observation which must hold once the checks are completed. Prudence is the mother of safety. Some Internet users, however, wonder if a breach has not already been discovered, a hypothesis that nothing confirms at this stage.

The immediate question for users relates to access to the funds, rather than their security. The assets are intact, but they can no longer exit the platform, which weighs on the liquidity of the most active traders.

This is not the first security alert for Indodax. In September 2024, hackers had already emptied its hot wallets, these wallets connected to the internet which are used for everyday withdrawals.

Nearly 22 million dollars then left the platform, followed by a long maintenance period. At the time, the money was gone before the services were cut off. This time, the order is reversed: the closure preceded any theft.

Such an outage remains rare for the platform, which is going through its second security-related disruption in about two years.

For its part, the regulatory environment has changed since the hack. Indodax now operates under the framework set by Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (OJK), the country's financial regulator. Its size as a local leader gives its decisions a weight that goes beyond its user base alone.