Cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck loses ¥58 billion in hacking attack
Coincheck CEO Koichiro Wada (left) and board member Yusuke Otsuka face the media in Tokyo late Friday to announce the cryptocurrency exchange lost ¥58 billion in virtual NEM coins to a hacking attack. | KYODO
Coincheck has reported the incident to the police and the Financial Services Agency.
Otsuka said Coincheck is considering compensating clients if it cannot recover the tokens but declined to say whether Coincheck had enough cash to do so.
Asked whether the firm had sufficient security measures in place to protect clients, Otsuka said they were doing their best but admitted they might have come up short.
For instance, Coincheck’s website says that bitcoins are to be stored offline when they are not being traded. Wada said its bitcoins were indeed stored offline but that the more than 5 million NEM coins that were stolen were not.
The exchange explained that it was planning to move the assets offline but did not have enough manpower to do the job.