![]() Yet again, a major cryptocurrency exchange in Japan was hacked and a conglomerate has taken over as the first step towards establishing a reputable brand in the rapidly growing cryptocurrency market. ![]() Unable to cover the lost funds of investors, Zaif secured a deal with Tokyo-based financial markets research firm Fisco, which gave Zaif $44 million in return for majority stake in the exchange. Recently, major Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Zaif was hacked for $60 million, within a year since the high profile security breach of Coincheck. It’s possible to manage risks but it’s no easy job for Monex to create a user base and brand like Coincheck’s by itself,” said Oki in a press conference in Tokyo. “Coincheck is a pioneer of the crypto-exchange business, not only in Japan but in the world… It has a global brand value, user base, technologies. Perhaps most importantly, as Matsumoto emphasized, while it is possible to create an infrastructure that is stronger than that of Coincheck, it is difficult to recreate the brand value and user base of the exchange. Compared to the acquisition of Poloniex by Circle at a valuation of $400 million, Coincheck was sold for less than 10 percent of the valuation of the US-based exchange, even though at its peak, it was processing a daily volume that was nearly 100-fold larger than that of Poloniex.įor Monex Group, the acquisition of Coincheck at a valuation of $34 million made sense for many reasons. Subsequent to the security breach, Coincheck was acquired by Oki Matsumoto, former Goldman Sachs executive and the CEO of Monex, at a mere $34 million. Fortunately, the company was able to cover the funds of investors that were lost in the hack and initiated the process of compensating traders. In January, Coincheck experienced the largest hacking attack in history, losing more than $500 million worth of XEM, the native cryptocurrency of NEM. The efforts of the FSA to expand its crypto department to handle massively increasing demand towards cryptocurrencies by local conglomerates were praised by companies within Japan and the rest of the global market.īut, with 160 companies planning to apply for licenses to operate as cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan in the upcoming months, it remains unsure whether the FSA will continue to license more exchanges in the short-term, especially after the recent high profile cryptocurrency hack of Zaif. $60 Million Zaif Hack and an Emerging Trend Particularly, the FSA has vowed to impose stricter policies pertaining to investor protection and platform security to ensure that cryptocurrency exchanges, at least those approved and licensed by the FSA, are robust enough to handle billions of dollars on a daily basis. Since the $500 million security breach of Coincheck, formerly the most widely utilized cryptocurrency trading platform in Japan, the country’s main financial watchdog Financial Services Agency (FSA) has tightened regulatory frameworks around digital asset exchanges. But the protections go to waste when the companies themselves experience a breach.In Japan, the largest crypto exchange market in the world, a new trend has emerged large conglomerates have started to acquire hacked digital asset trading platforms as a way to enter the cryptocurrency sector. Using unique passwords and two-factor authentication can better protect your cryptocurrency account from hacking. The heist at Coincheck is certainly a worrisome sign for investors. Some of the attacks have involved sending phishing emails that try to trick the victims into installing malware. ![]() Security experts have warned that hackers, including those from North Korea, have been targeting the cryptocurrency industry. In 2016, another bitcoin exchange named Bitfinex lost what was then $60 million in a separate breach. Cybercriminals managed to snatch the funds by compromising a company computer and stealing an engineer's login credentials. In December, a cryptocurrency mining platform known as NiceHash reported losing $70 million in bitcoin. While details about the Coincheck theft remain scant, the number of cryptocurrency-related hacks has only been growing. (Due to the rising price of Bitcoin, the stolen funds from Mt. Gox exchange reported losing to hackers in 2014. It exceeds the initial $460 million in bitcoin the Mt. The heist is one of the biggest to hit the cryptocurrency market.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |