[2019-07-12] Japanese Exchange Hacked for $32 Million in Cryptocurrency

[mich]

https://www.coindesk.com/japanese-exchange-bitpoint-hacked-by-32-million-worth-in-cryptocurrencies?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=coindesk&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=Organic%20

Bitpoint, a licensed cryptocurrency exchange based in Japan, has been hacked for $32 million in crypto assets.

According to a CoinDesk Japan report on Friday, Bitpoint halted all services including trading, deposit and withdrawal of all crypto assets on Friday morning after it noticed irregular withdrawal from its hot wallet on Thursday.

It is not yet clear at this stage which types of assets were lost, the exchange offered trading for five cryptocurrencies: bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ether, litecoin and XRP.

The exchange’s parent company Remixpoint Inc. said in an announcement that $23 million of the illegal outflow belonged to its customers.

The news marks the latest breach of a Japanese exchange. In September 2018, Zaif, also a licensed exchange under the Japanese Financial Services Agency, was hacked for $60 million worth of cryptocurrencies.

Earlier last year, Coincheck was also breached, resulting in more than $520 million worth of cryptocurrencies being stolen.

[NeuroticFish]

Bitpoint, a licensed cryptocurrency exchange based in Japan, has been hacked for $32 million in crypto assets.

That's about 2750BTC worth... Did the hackers actually get to cash out and it maybe was part of the cause that made Bitcoin go under 11k, or we can expect another drop these days?
It saddens me to see that each and every exchange need to get hacked first in order to get their security really good...

[Lucius]

I think this is to small amount of money to cause any negative changes to the market, especially because this is not some well known crypto exchange. Binance hack of 7000 BTC few months ago had almost no negative effect, so it seems that people do not fall so easily under the influence of the bad news.

Problem for crypto exchanges is in fact that most of them keep too much coins in hot wallets, and that is invitation for hackers. Japan is have strict rules for crypto exchanges, but consider all the hacking which happen there, some things are obviously just a dead letter on paper.

[davis196]

News about cryptocurrency exchange platforms being hacked aren't sensational anymore.
This happens really often and the smaller exchange platforms don't have the money(or simply don't want to invest)to upgrade their security.It's weird that most of the hacked exchanges are from Japan and South Korea,two of the most technologically advanced countries in the world.

[gentlemand]

When I was a little girl I was told repeatedly that Asians were all competent and efficient and stuff yet Japan and Korea have become the world capital of hacks. I thought the extremely expensive and comprehensive Japanese licencing was partly about satisfying the people who issue them that this wouldn't happen?

I'd be very curious to know what places like Coinbase and Gemini are doing that these places are not.

[veleten]

never happened before and now again ....
what is sad it is not even surprising anyone anymore
hacks or "hacks" happen nearly every month and even the countries like Korea and Japan are not exempt
I suspect some , if not many of the hacks were inside jobs , but the security issues stands - I would not hold any substantial amount of coins at any exchange anymore
this was a lot of coins too and we could see them stolen coins dumped elsewhere and the price go down because of that

[Aveatrex]

Problem for crypto exchanges is in fact that most of them keep too much coins in hot wallets, and that is invitation for hackers.

There were many exchanges that had not only the hot wallets hacked but also the cold wallets,only Binance cold wallets resisted the hacks I believe.

I suspect some , if not many of the hacks were inside jobs

If an exchange cares about security inside jobs shouldn't even be possible, they should be the first secuirty measure to implement before caring about external hackers..

When I was a little girl I was told repeatedly that Asians were all competent and efficient and stuff yet Japan and Korea have become the world capital of hacks.

I don't think we should blame the people that are working in these exchanges. Cryptocurrency is relatively new  and exchanges are a big target because they are not as secure as banks it's very hard to maintain security in this environment.

[gentlemand]

I don't think we should blame the people that are working in these exchanges. Cryptocurrency is relatively new  and exchanges are a big target because they are not as secure as banks it's very hard to maintain security in this environment.

Yes we should.

Look at the Coincheck hack. They lost hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of XEM because ALL of it was in a hot wallet. This is a coin that actually has multi sig built into it yet they couldn't be bothered to use it.

Even if they'd spent $90 on a Trezor it would've been prevented but it was clearly preferable to lose $500 million instead.

[BitHodler]

I don't think we should blame the people that are working in these exchanges. Cryptocurrency is relatively new  and exchanges are a big target because they are not as secure as banks it's very hard to maintain security in this environment.

Of course we should. We should also blame people letting their coins sit in an exchange if they aren't trading. After everything that happened in Japan I wouldn't trust a single exchange there.

How many Japanese exchanges have been hacked now in a fairly shorty period of time? 5? Something is fundamentally wrong with how these people think an exchange should be operated. It's mind boggling.

These guys clearly don't know how to handle the responsibility of making sure people's funds are safe. I'm sure the only thing they focused on were the profits that they were generating.

[philipma1957]

It not that it is Japanese or Korean.

It is that they have lots of liquid coins . So they are targets.

No exchange is truly “safe” from hacks.

Inside jobs abound.  Many times two insiders are all that is needed.

I keep coins in trezor and in core wallets. And very little in exchanges .

Say 10 to 1 ratio.

[deadsilent]

Well, the exchange should cover what they lost. If not, traders are screwed. Some exchanges that are backed and lost the funds were closed and never recovered and so as the traders fund. That's sucks because it's suppose to be their responsibility to take care of the funds but end up losing it because of negligence of their responsibility.
And we as traders, we have a responsibility to check whether the exchange is safe enough and credible enough to use. Do they have insurance policy if ever some incidents like this happen?
 

I don't think we should blame the people that are working in these exchanges. Cryptocurrency is relatively new  and exchanges are a big target because they are not as secure as banks it's very hard to maintain security in this environment.

Of course we should. We should also blame people letting their coins sit in an exchange if they aren't trading. After everything that happened in Japan I wouldn't trust a single exchange there.

Maybe at some point. But what people do know that this will happen? It's still on the exchange. They are keeping the funds. They should have made a better security.

[Naida_BR]

There are already so many incidents of security breaches in exchanges.
I wonder why people still save their cryptos in exchange wallets and they don't store them in any hardware wallet of something away from exchanges. For so many times, hacks have happened and will continue to happen.

[BitHodler]

Maybe at some point. But what people do know that this will happen? It's still on the exchange. They are keeping the funds. They should have made a better security.

Uh, there have been dozens of hacks in the last couple of years if we include other countries. It should be known that exchanges aren't immune to hacks, and hackers especially at these prices are trying their best to get in.

Also, better security is better until it no longer is. If an exchange adds important changes to enhance their security today, it might be outdated tomorrow and therefore vulnerable.

The best is to not rely on an exchange for storage purposes. Buy a sub $100 hardware wallet and you can store most of the top crypto currencies. This is how hacks will no longer impact your holdings.

[hatshepsut93]

I think this is to small amount of money to cause any negative changes to the market, especially because this is not some well known crypto exchange. Binance hack of 7000 BTC few months ago had almost no negative effect, so it seems that people do not fall so easily under the influence of the bad news.

Problem for crypto exchanges is in fact that most of them keep too much coins in hot wallets, and that is invitation for hackers. Japan is have strict rules for crypto exchanges, but consider all the hacking which happen there, some things are obviously just a dead letter on paper.

The wound of Mt. Gox still didn't fully heal and every time an exchange gets hacked, there are people who start to worry that it will cause a price crash, but the recent history shows that Bitcoin today is big enough to ignore such problems. Fiat doesn't crash when a bank is robbed (and there are some pretty big hacking cases when millions got stolen), so why should Bitcoin crash, especially when the sums are small compared to all the coins in circulation.

[carlfebz2]

Not again but actually im aint surprised anymore for these exchange hacks everynow and then.Just wondering why Korean and Japanese exchange do always been targeted out? Does this mean they have weaker security or just really prone to inside jobs of its employees?

[Harlot]

With another exchange falling victim in Japan I think they already have more than 3 strikes already to say that they don't need a change when it comes to their crypto exchange regulation. I know that they have recently changed it in the oast but by doing so they have give new licenses to new exchanges so that's one to consider that their enforcement is not enough to control and monitor several exchanges in the country. At this point the Japanese government needs ti step in as their citizens are severely affected by it.

[squatter]

Bitpoint, a licensed cryptocurrency exchange based in Japan, has been hacked for $32 million in crypto assets.

One of the arguments for Japan's licensing scheme was to make sure the exchange security setups were robust enough to protect Japanese investors. A lot of good that did, eh?

Expensive licenses make for huge barriers to market entry, but it doesn't create competent exchanges...

[Mr.Ease]

The hackers are still at it...
It's like every other week there is an exchange being robbed.

At least I never heard of the exchange until now. If it was binance again, then i'd be a tad worried about the markets.

[1Referee]

Just wondering why Korean and Japanese exchange do always been targeted out? Does this mean they have weaker security or just really prone to inside jobs of its employees?

It's not necessarily that these countries are a target, but more so that these countries are such a big player in the exchange market. There are so many exchanges there that it's quite normal for these countries pop up more than other countries in this negative aspect. Another contributing aspect is the rapid growth in that region where exchanges rush to go online but with lesser overall security unfortunately.

I'm not even wondering how people can be so stupid to leave their precious coins at an exchange. I know people are messed up in the head. They won't change.

[bbc.reporter]

When I was a little girl I was told repeatedly that Asians were all competent and efficient and stuff yet Japan and Korea have become the world capital of hacks. I thought the extremely expensive and comprehensive Japanese licencing was partly about satisfying the people who issue them that this wouldn't happen?

I'd be very curious to know what places like Coinbase and Gemini are doing that these places are not.

Also, that China was the cheap copycat of Japanese products. Today, most Japanese products are made in China hehe.

In any case, I reckon this might be another inside job. Yakuza hehe?