In particular, concerns within the industry are growing because this incident went beyond a simple theft of virtual assets and occurred within the smart contracts—the core system for operating stablecoins. Since security and trust are key to competitiveness in blockchain businesses that connect games and digital assets, analysts suggest that recurring incidents could hinder service expansion.
Wemade Co., Ltd.(112040) The WEMIX Foundation, an affiliate of WEMIX, announced on the 26th of last month that an attack exploiting a vulnerability in the smart contract of its stablecoin operating system had occurred. The attacker targeted the WEMIX Dollar (WEMIX$) issuance system to issue approximately 7.7 billion won worth of WEMIX Dollars improperly; of this amount, approximately 723,244 units (worth about 1 billion won) were drained to external wallets.
WEMIX$ is a dollar-pegged stablecoin used within the WEMIX ecosystem. It was confirmed that approximately 34,752 regular WEMIX coins were also transferred externally during this attack.
According to the WEMIX Foundation, the attacker targeted the smart contracts of “DIOS,” which is responsible for stabilizing the price of WEMIX Dollar, and “AMA,” a program that provides collateral asset exchange functionality. Immediately after detecting the suspicious transactions, the Foundation took emergency measures, including suspending the bridge service and deactivating the relevant contracts.
This incident is particularly painful because it occurred despite the foundation’s repeated emphasis on strengthening its security systems following a large-scale hack last year.
In February of last year, approximately 9 billion won worth of WEMIX was stolen in an attack on the bridge system connecting to external blockchains. Following that incident, WEMIX was delisted from major domestic exchanges, and although Wemade Co., Ltd. filed a motion with the court for a provisional injunction to suspend the delisting, it was denied.
Previously, in November 2022, Wemix experienced its first delisting from domestic exchanges amid controversy over its circulating supply. Since then, Wemix has pursued greater transparency and expansion into global markets, but recurring incidents have once again left it facing a crisis of trust.
This hack is particularly concerning given that it occurred after Wemade Co., Ltd. announced last September that it would strengthen its blockchain infrastructure competitiveness by launching a mainnet dedicated to won-pegged stablecoins.
Industry observers believe that Wemix’s biggest challenge will be restoring trust in its ecosystem rather than technological development. Since P2E (Play-to-Earn) games are structured so that users perceive in-game assets as having real economic value, a loss of trust in the token and platform will inevitably make it difficult to attract users and expand the business.
The price of WEMIX also showed weakness immediately following the incident. As of 3:18 p.m. on August 4, the price of WEMIX on CoinMarketCap stood at $0.20. This represents a decline of approximately 75% compared to a year ago.
Wemade Co., Ltd. is also restructuring its blockchain business following the resignation of former CEO Jang Hyun-guk. The company has wound down some of its overseas subsidiaries, including WEMIX Technology (DIFC) Ltd., established in Dubai last year, as well as WEMIX BAHAMAS and WEMIX US LLC.
The change in the largest shareholder is also seen as a factor that could influence the future direction of the blockchain business. With Chairman Park Kwan-ho deciding to sell his entire stake to the Chinese-backed firm Neopulse, industry interest is growing regarding whether there will be changes to Wemade Co., Ltd.’s business strategy and the direction of the WEMIX ecosystem’s operations.
However, the blockchain business still accounts for a limited portion of Wemade Co., Ltd.’s overall performance. According to Wemade Co., Ltd.’s quarterly report, blockchain-related revenue in the first quarter of this year was 7.477 billion won, representing 4.88% of total revenue.
The gaming industry is paying close attention to the possibility that this incident could influence the blockchain business strategies of domestic game companies. Amid ongoing regulatory uncertainty and a slump in the virtual asset market, game companies are now exploring new ways to combine game IP with digital assets, rather than aggressively expanding Play-to-Earn (P2E) models as they did in the past.
Excluded from Information Security Disclosure Requirements Due to Insufficient Revenue… “Security Enhancement Measures”Coincidentally, Wemade Co., Ltd. was also exempted
fromthis year’s information security disclosure
requirements.
The information security disclosure system requires companies with separate revenue of 300 billion won or more in the previous fiscal year to disclose details such as the scale of their information security investments, dedicated personnel, and key security measures. Wemade Co., Ltd. recorded separate revenue of 288.2 billion won last year, falling short of the threshold.
While Wemade Co., Ltd. disclosed information security investment amounts of 2.8 billion won in its 2024 disclosure and 3.1 billion won in its 2025 disclosure, its exclusion from the mandatory reporting requirements this year makes it difficult for external parties to verify the scale of such investments.
Wemade Co., Ltd. stated, “We are not currently disclosing these figures separately to the public.”
The government is currently pushing to amend the Enforcement Decree of the Information Security Industry Act to expand the scope of mandatory information security disclosure to include listed companies and ISMS-certified businesses.
The Wemix Foundation is currently cooperating with investigative authorities to determine the cause of the incident and is conducting a comprehensive review of smart contracts and implementing security enhancements.
The Foundation stated, “We have requested that exchanges holding the relevant assets freeze them and cooperate with the investigation, and some of the relevant addresses have already been frozen,” adding, “We will continue to review and implement necessary measures to strengthen security as much as possible.”
