Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck Inc said on Sunday it would return about $425 million of the virtual money it lost to hackers two days ago.
TOKYO — Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck said on Sunday it would return about $425 million of the virtual money it lost to hackers two days ago in one of the biggest-ever thefts of digital money.
That amounts to nearly 90 percent of the roughly $533 million worth of NEM coins the company lost in an attack that forced it to suspend on Friday withdrawals of all cryptocurrencies except bitcoin.
In a Tokyo press conference, Coincheck Inc President Koichiro Wada said each trader who was affected by the hack will be compensated at a rate of $0.8147 cents per coin. Coincheck estimates that 260,000 traders were affected by the hack.
The theft underscores security and regulatory concerns about bitcoin and other virtual currencies even as a global boom in them shows little signs of fizzling.
Two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said Japan’s Financial Services Agency sent a notice to the country’s roughly 30 firms that operate virtual currency exchanges to warn of further possible cyberattacks, urging them to step up security.
