Zaif, a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange, reported on Thursday, September 20th, that it suffered a cyber attack which resulted in the theft of $60 million in Bitcoin (BTC), Monacoin (MONA), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). The startup reported that the event occurred on September 14th but was noticed on Monday and confirmed on Tuesday.
Of the total amount subtracted, about $19.6 million belong to the cryptocurrency exchange platform, while the rest of the funds were stolen from customers. The Osaka-based company, owned by Tech Bureau Corp, temporarily suspended all deposits and withdrawals until security levels were restored, according to the press release.
Although the investigations are in their initial phase, the company said the cyberattackers diverted the cryptos from the platform’s wallets to their accounts.
Zaif, a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange, lost $60 million in Bitcoin (BTC), Monacoin (MONA), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) in a cyber attack
“The reason why the amount of damage cannot be determined at this time is that the server is not restarting until security is guaranteed to avoid secondary damage. As soon as the amount of virtual currency lost is determined, we will report it promptly, stated Zaif’s representatives.
The incident was reported by Zaif to the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA), as part of its protocol in case of such attacks, to initiate investigations and find the hackers.
In the past, cyber attacks on Japanese cryptocurrency exchange platforms have given a massive blow to the crypto ecosystem in the country. This was also the case in January when $530 million in NEM (XEM) were stolen from Coincheck. The event was considered by Lon Wong, founder of NEM (XEM), as “the biggest robbery in the history of the world.”
Another famous case was that of Mt. Gox Bitcoin (BTC) exchange house in 2014 when the hacker stole 744,000 Bitcoin (BTC) from the users and another 100,000 BTC from the startup itself. The losses summed up to $422 million.
