Categories: Crypto News
| Published On Sep 21, 2018 2:13 pm CEST  |  Updated on May 2, 2021 2:10 pm CEST | By iGaming Team

Hackers steal $59 million from a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange

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Hackers stole around $59 million in cryptocurrency from a Japanese exchange called Zaif, stated a statement released by the owners on Thursday.

Reports suggest that the breach occured on September 14 but the company sensed that something was wrong on September 17 and they realized that somebody has hacked their software on September 18.

The exchange lost around 5,966 Bitcoins which was worth $6,000 each and it also lost some Bitcoin Cash and Monacoin, the amount of which is being investigated by the Tech Bureau, read the statement.

Tech Bureau has confirmed that it will be selling a majority of share to other financial services corporation in Japan, which is reported by CCN.

Cryptocurrencies usually considered secured and hard but exchanges which facilitate the transactions of the cryptocurrencies pose high risk.

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Earlier in 2014, Japan-based Mt. Gox had declared bankruptcy after losing $473 million to the hackers. Cryptocurrency exchange function like stock exchange or currency exchange which could be found at a bank or some other place but the users in this case do not trade in fiat currencies but in virtual currencies. The prices of Bitcoins had witnessed a tremendous growth in December 2017 at under $20,000 per Bitcoin. A few days after the surge, another Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck reported a loss of $500 million in cryptocurrencies which was hacked by the hackers.

Virtual currency exchanges have witnessed five major hacks this year. It might one of the reasons why professional money managers have largely decided to stay away from the market even as individual investors have piled in.