By DAN FALVEY
MILLIONS of pounds is set to be repaid to investors who used the Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck Inc. after the company announced it would reimburse those who lost money due to being hacked.
A total of 58billion yen (£38million) worth of NEM coins was lost on Thursday in one of the biggest thefts of digital money in history.
Check coin have announced they will repay approximately 46.3billion yen (£30million), 90 per cent of the money lost, to roughly 260,000 owners of NEM coins who lost their investment.
The method and time-frame for repaying those who lost money is yet to be agreed.
Coincheck has said the currency was sent “illicitly” outside the venue.
Co-founder Yusuke Otsuka said the company did not know how the 500 million tokens went missing and the firm is working to ensure the safety of all client assets.
Mr Otsuka old a press conference at the Tokyo Stock Exchange yesterday: “We know where the funds were sent.
“We are tracing them and if we’re able to continue tracking, it may be possible to recover them. But it is something we are investigating at the moment.”
Japan’s financial watchdog is considering whether to take administrative punishment against Coincheck for the hack as a part of the financial settlements law, according to one insider.
Cryptocurrency exchange operators working within the country were required as of April 2017 to register with the Government.
Operators which existed before that date, such as Coincheck, are allowed to continue offering services while awaiting approval.
It is believed that Government may use these rules to punish Coincheck for the security failures that led to the hack earlier this week.
UPDATE:
Meanwhile, the NEM Foundation announced the initiation of a new tracking system, which has rendered the stolen funds useless to the thieves (unless they want to be traced).
The NEM Foundation’s market capitalisation dropped by about $2 billion dollars after news of the theft broke, but soon jumped back after the assurances offered by Coincheck. It is currently worth $9,363,779,999, according to coinmarketcap.com.
Coincheck, a major Japanese cryptocurrency exchange, has assured affected customers that they will be reimbursed from its own pocket, according to an official Twitter post.
