A Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange, Coincheck, has suffered a massive hack that seems to be the biggest in the history of cryptocurrency, losing about $532 million in digital assets (around $420 million in NEM token and well as $112 in Ripples) .
According to a blog post published today, the exchange firm confirmed the attack and froze most of its services such as withdrawals, deposits and trade of almost all cryptocurrencies except Bitcoin.However, the firm did not disclose how the attack was carried out.
The exchange also stopped deposits made into NEM cryptocurrencies which made the cryptocurrency to fall, losing 16.5% in value. The news of the attack also made Bitcoin to drop down 5% value early this morning.
The hack has been reported to law enforcement authorities and also Financial Services agency to investigate the cause of the hack.
"We will report on the damage situation and cause of the case, measures to prevent recurrence, but first we would like to take every possible measure to protect our customers," Executives of the Financial Services Agency said.
New source Asahi explained that in the morning on Jan 26, Coincheck noticed that the balance of NEM had greatly decreased and so the company ceased all trading, deposits and dispensing in the afternoon. Later that same day, the exchange stopped all withdrawals including Japanese Coins and Japanese Yen.
Almost all the NEM owned by the company is said to have been lost and there is no official statement from the company regarding th breach as at the time of this post.