$32 Million of Cryptocurrency Assets stolen from Japanese Exchange Bitpoint

Attackers breached Bitpoint, the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange, and then stolen $32 million (i.e. 3.5 Billion Yen) worth of cryptocurrency assets.

RemixPoint, legal entity behind the Bitpoint, said that Bitpoint exchange network was breached by the hackers on Jul. 11, 2019, and then the hackers have stolen funds from the 'hot' as well as offline 'cold' wallets. The hot wallets were used for storing funds of current transactions, whereas the cold wallets were used for storing long-term and emergency funds.

Bitpoint discovered the hack and realized that they become a cyber-attack victim, after experiencing errors at the time of remitting the Ripple funds to the customers. Soon the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange realized that the funds from the cryptocurrency wallets on their platform were stolen.

Then the cryptocurrency exchange shut down the platform, and held meeting with their management. Bitpoint said that they were forced on July 12, 2019, to stop all the services -- including the deposits, withdrawals, new account openings, and payments -- while they investigated the incident. The exchange has also informed the relevant authorities about this incident in Japan.

"We apologize for the great inconvenience to our customers, but we appreciate your understanding and cooperation," said Bitpoint as per the notice that was posted on their website.

The hacker has stolen $32 million (or 3.5 Billion Yen) worth funds in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, and Ethereal. Bitpoint finds that out of stolen $32 million (i.e. 3.5 Billion Yen) of cryptocurrency assets, $23 million (i.e. 2.5 Billion Yen) were funds owned by the customer, whereas the rest have been reserve funds that was owned by exchange itself.

Bitpoint is the latest victim among cryptocurrency exchanges that come under scrutiny of the cybercriminals. Just in June 2019, Bitrue - the Singaporean cryptocurrency exchange - was estimated to have lost about $4.5 million funds after the hackers have breached one hot wallet and then moved those funds to various other exchanges. Similarly, in May 2019, the hackers have stolen around $41 million from the Binance. In most of the incidents, at least majority of the stolen money has been returned to the customers. However, it is still not clear right now whether Bitpoint is also planning to reimburse their customers.

» SPAMfighter News - 8/9/2019