Coincheck, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchange houses in Japan, suffered a robbery valued at USD 534 million. Analysts already catalog it as the biggest theft in history because of the magnitude and repercussions it had.
- When it happened
The incident occurred on Friday, but it was only learned eight hours later. The hacked assets were NEM (XEM), which is among the 10 most valuable virtual currencies, according to its market capitalization.
2 . The exchange house did not have a valid license to operate
Coincheck started operating in 2014 and has about 80 employees. It is located in the Shibuya district, a popular Tokyo neighborhood. According to Bloomberg, it did not have the necessary license to operate in cryptocurrencies, a new requirement imposed by the Tokyo legislature and part of a legislative measure that aims to audit, more closely, the exchange houses of this type.
However, the company had received permission to continue operating while awaiting a determination by the Financial Services Agency. This entity will now penalize Coincheck for this incident.
3 . How it happened
The affected assets were stored in hot wallets, as wallets that are connected to external networks are called. In contrast, cold wallets are devices that are not connected to the network, therefore, it is assumed that assets stored in this way are less vulnerable to cyber attacks.
On the other hand, Coincheck lacked a fundamental security measure, such as the multiform, which requires several signatures or permits before authorizing a movement of funds.
4 . You already know where the stolen funds are
Coincheck identified the addresses where the stolen funds went, and can be seen entering here. It is not known who these accounts belong to, but NEM developers created a tool that would automatically track any operation performed with the stolen funds.
Another possibility to stop any operation with those coins would be to create a fork or fork that split the currency in two: one before the theft and another after that event. Anyway, the vice president, Jeff McDonald, said he does not plan to take this option forward.
5 . The solution offered by the company
In response to this incident, the company froze deposits and withdrawals. In addition, it undertook to compensate the 260 thousand affected users: each one will receive the value of their deposits hacked in yen, at an approximate value of 83 USD for each virtual currency, according to the company published on its site.
6 . It's not the first time it happens
In December there was a hack to NiceHash valued at more than 64 million dollars and that aroused a widespread alert. Not the first or only incident of this type, although perhaps it had more repercussion than other attacks, because last year the cryptocurrencies began to become more important, after bitcoin had a historical peak of 20 thousand dollars.