Another Crypto Exchange Becomes Victim Of A Cyber-Attack

Bitpoint, one of the largest Japanese crypto exchange platforms had to cease operational activities as a result of a cyber attack that took place at 10:21 pm on Thursday, 12^th July 2019, Japanese time. By 2am on Friday morning, Bitpoint reported several cryptocurrencies to be affected by the attack, which led to stopping trading and exchanging activities on the platform.

According to the company, hackers that stay behind the attack managed to steal approximately 3.5 billion yen, which is estimated to be around $32 million in USD.

Bitpoint discovered that there has been external interventions into the platform while Bitpoint placed an order and made a payment with Ripple on Thursday afternoon. An error message had appeared on their screen, which led to an internal investigation. The investigation revealed that Bitpoint`s wallet was emptied prior the attempted payment.

Remixpoint Inc., who own Bitpoint platform stated that 30 percent of the crypto loot was possession of Bitpoint. The rest 70% were owned by customers who use Bitpoint platform for trading and exchanging operations.  

As a result of the hack, Remixpoint`s shares went down with 19% several hours after the news and became untradeable due to the high demand of share owners trying to get rid of their shares. There is a reported tendency Bitpoint`s shares devaluation to continue.

In 2018, the Japan`s Financial Services Agency (FSA) ordered Bitpoint to ensure that improvements to their security will be made after several instances of cyber-attacks on domestic exchange platforms.

Coincheck`s security was one of the affected exchanges last year, when hackers stole around $520 million in various cryptocurrencies. In September 2018, Zaif was another exchange that was hacked – during the breach, hackers successfully succeeded in extracting $60 million out of the exchange`s wallets.