South Korea’s prominent cryptocurrency exchange, Upbit, has recently taken a significant step forward by reinstating Aptos (APT) deposits and withdrawals. This development comes in the wake of a meticulous resolution of an issue that had initially led to an erroneous recognition of a scam APT token as legitimate.

On September 24th, Upbit took the unexpected decision to halt Aptos token services, citing an “abnormal deposit attempt” as the reason behind this sudden suspension. This move triggered a thorough inspection of the exchange’s wallet system, aiming to unearth the root cause of the problem.

The investigation revealed that the problem originated in a recently created counterfeit APT token, cleverly masquerading as a genuine article under the moniker “ClaimAPTGift.com.” Shockingly, this fake token had infiltrated a staggering 400,000 Aptos wallets within just three days of its creation on September 21st.

The masquerading token was part of a classic token airdrop scam strategy, wherein unsuspecting users receive tokens that contain embedded links redirecting them to phishing websites. Regrettably, Upbit’s failure to perform a meticulous source code verification of these fraudulent tokens led to their misclassification as authentic Aptos tokens. Numerous Korean users reported receiving APT tokens without corresponding transactions initiated by themselves, as per Definalist, a user account.

Explaining the oversight, Upbit conceded, “It seems that during the process of reflecting $APT coin deposits, there was a failure to check the type arguments, and all the same functions transfers were recognized as the same APT native token.” This oversight enabled users who had sold counterfeit APT tokens to withdraw substantial funds from the platform.

In response, Upbit’s customer center has initiated efforts to reclaim funds from users who unwittingly engaged in transactions involving counterfeit APT tokens. The exchange has taken swift corrective measures, and as of September 24th at 11:00 pm local time, Upbit announced the resumption of deposits and withdrawals after completing a thorough wallet inspection.

In a reassuring statement, Upbit declared, “The action against the abnormal deposit attempt has been completed, and there is no problem with your Aptos transaction.” However, it also cautioned users about potential delays in transaction processing and temporary price fluctuations concerning APT tokens compared to other exchanges.

APT is trading at approximately $5.31 over the past 24 hours. Nonetheless, on Upbit, the price of APT stands at approximately $5.56, according to CoinGecko. The exchange’s swift response to this incident demonstrates its commitment to maintaining the security and integrity of its services, reassuring its user base in the process.