Ring in the hacking bells once again.
BitPoint, a licensed Japanese cryptocurrency exchange, has been hacked, leaving over 7 billion yen [$64.6 million USD] compromised. Japan is the latest to join the list of countries with crypto-exchanges subjected to cyber-attacks, joining the likes of South Korea, Canada, and New Zealand.
According to Nikkei Asian Review, the Tokyo-based BitPoint saw “unauthorized access,” leading to a ‘leakage’ in funds. This breach resulted in 7 billion yen being funneled out of the exchange, resulting in BitPoint halting all deposits and withdrawals from 0630 [JST], 12 July.
The report read,
“On the 12th, the company announced that it has stopped all services including deposits and withdrawals and transactions on its website. It is undecided when the service will resume.”
Cryptocurrency investors are still reeling from the dark days of Mt. Gox, which remains the worst drawn-out cryptocurrency exchange attack to plague the industry. The case of yet another Japanese exchange succumbing to cyber-attacks is a stark reminder of the same. Koji Hagashi, a popular cryptocurrency influencer in the Japanese digital assets space, reiterated the same,
BitPoint, one of licensed exchanges in Japan, got hacked today and supposedly have lost 10s of millions dollars worth of cryptocurrencies. Gox incidents are nothing new but I’m afraid this may affect the regulation and make it even more strict in Japan.
https://t.co/DA84QqGV55— Koji Higashi (@Coin_and_Peace) July 12, 2019
He added that “sentiment” in the island country has been on the up-and-up in terms of trading volume. Regulation has also been structured around effective exchange performance, with the Financial Services Authority not curtailing performance and development. Higashi called it “bad timing,” an incident which could “put a pause to the [Japanese] market yet again.”
@Coin_and_Peace stated,
The sentiment in Japan toward had been improving quite a lot recently and trading volume of crypto was also picking up. So it’s a really bad timing and put a pause to the market yet again. we shall see.
— Koji Higashi (@Coin_and_Peace) July 12, 2019
Earlier in the year, when Mt. Gox’s rehabilitation program was going on, BitPoint was one of the recipient exchanges of the Bitcoin [BTC] and Bitcoin Cash [BCH] proceedings. Nobuaki Kobayashi, Mt. Gox trustee, allegedly sold the virtual currencies on BitPoint in a bid to repay creditors.