Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck announced today that it lost over 500 million NEM tokens, worth over $500 million at the time of the incident.
The company admitted to being hacked earlier today in a conference with local media. Coincheck said it alerted local law enforcement after detecting the hack.
Coincheck officials are currently pondering a method of compensating some of the users who suffered losses, according to a user who live-tweeted the Coincheck conference [1, 2].
Rumors started circulating earlier this morning
Users started suspecting something was wrong after Coincheck suspended NEM deposits earlier today, only to stop all NEM trading a few hours later, and then halting all payments on the entire site.
According to currently available information, the hacker(s) stole only NEM tokens, a recently launched cryptocurrency, ranked the tenth digital currency in the world, based on market cap.
NEM trading price dropped from $1 to $0.8 following the hack announcement. It is believed the hacker stole almost 7% of all NEM tokens currently in circulation.
No evidence hackers stole Ripple cryptocoins
Kaspersky researcher Costin Raiu also pointed out earlier today that Coincheck also moved $110 million worth of Ripple (XRP) cryptocurrency after the hack.
110 mil usd in #Ripple (XRP) were sent from the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck to an unknown address. Hacking suspected. https://t.co/hmGhlSmJEH
— Costin Raiu (@craiu) January 26, 2018
Coincheck did not admit to losing Ripple funds in the incident, and some users speculated that the company simply moved funds to a more secure location to safeguard them from a possible theft, just in case the hacker still had access to their systems.
In the annals of cryptocurrency exchange platform hacks, the Coincheck incident is now the biggest hack ever, surpassing the Mt. Gox incident from 2014 when hackers stole over $450 million worth of Bitcoin.
Coincheck was founded in 2012, is based in Tokyo, Japan, and was in the middle of getting a license from the Japanese government to operate as a legitimate cryptocurrency exchange in the country.
Comments
Warthog-Fan - 6 years ago
Another good reason for me to keep using dollars and cents.
I wonder if they will eventually be able to trace the person or group responsible. This sounds like something that the North Korean government might be involved in to help finance their nuclear program.
JohnC_21 - 6 years ago
North Korea was my first thought.
Occasional - 6 years ago
Yes, JC; mine too. Wouldn't be surprised if they had help from other nation-state players, which have either dragged their feet on sanctions, or sought ways to bypass them - at arm's length. Helps who the want, and hurts their rivals.
Another proud moment for cryptocurrency advocates and apologists.
NickAu - 6 years ago
Quote
" North Korea was my first thought."
Or it might have been terrorists for example ISIS, or it could have been a Coincheck employee, maybe it was my grandmother that would explain how she got her new mansion and Bugatti Veyron yesterday.
talal1 - 6 years ago
Looooooooooooooool