Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 18 submissions in the queue.

$400+ Million Stolen From Coincheck Cryptocurrency Exchange

posted by Fnord666 on Sunday January 28 2018, @09:07AM   Printer-friendly
from the keep-your-private-keys-offline dept.

takyon writes:

There's a new contender for the largest theft of cryptocurrency ever:

A Japanese cryptocurrency exchange announced the theft Friday of $400 million in digital currency. Some estimates put the loss at the Coincheck exchange at over $520 million.

The stolen assets were stored in the cryptocurrency NEM, one of hundreds of digital currencies created in recent years. Bitcoin, the most well-known cryptocurrency, dropped precipitously on news of the hack but has since regained much of its value.

The incident could be one of the largest single losses of cryptocurrency ever, rivaling only the 2014 hack of online exchange Mt. Gox. Reports at the time put Mt. Gox's losses at over $400 million.

Coincheck says 500 million digital coins were lost. According to Cointelgraph, hackers stole the private key protecting access to Coincheck's accounts.

Does it matter that it was a $400 million theft if the value is going to collapse anyway?

Meanwhile, a stock trading app called Robinhood plans to allow users to buy and sell Bitcoin and Ethereum without any transaction fees.

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
$400+ Million Stolen From Coincheck Cryptocurrency Exchange | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 48 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by maxwell demon on Sunday January 28 2018, @05:23PM (1 child)

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Sunday January 28 2018, @05:23PM (#629508) Journal

    If the powers that be have the ability to undo those transactions

    From the article linked from the post you replied to; emphasis by me:

    Coincheck said it would use its cash to reimburse about 46.3bn yen to the 260,000 people who lost their holdings of NEM, the world’s 10th-biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation.

    So, no reversal of transaction, nor magical creation of more; rather payment of non-crypto money.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Informative=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   3  

  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday January 28 2018, @09:46PM

    by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Sunday January 28 2018, @09:46PM (#629591) Homepage
    Whaaaat, they're using that non-crypto stuff? Flicking hypocrites.
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves