Japanese crypto exchange set to repay victims of a $400 million hack
- Japanese crypto exchange Coincheck is set to pay customers following a $400 million heist, according to a Bloomberg News report.
- It will reimburse the 260,000 customers who saw their NEM holdings vanish.
Coincheck, a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange, is set to use its own money to pay back victims of a hack of its exchange.
The Tokyo-based exchange said in a statement it would reimburse the 260,000 customers affected by the $400 million heist of digital currency NEM, "at a rate of 88.549 yen (81 US cents) for each coin," Bloomberg reported.
The company said Friday that more than 500 million NEM coins, the seventh largest cryptocurrency, vanished after being "illicitly" transferred off the exchange. Coincheck is still looking into exactly what happened.
The heist awakened memories of the notorious hack of Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Mt Gox in 2014, which resulted in more than 850,000 bitcoin being stolen from the now defunct exchange.
As such, most major digital currencies were in the red for much of Friday's trading session. It appears investors' worries have since been mollified. Most digital currencies were trading up against the US dollar during Saturday trading, according to CoinMarketCap.
"Since there is no FDIC or SIPC insurance for crypto the fact that they are 'trying' to make account holder's whole is a good sign," John Spallanzani of Miller Value Partners told Business Insider in a text message.
Notably, NEM was a tear. The price of the cryptocurrency was up more than 30% over the last twenty-four hours, trading at $1.11 a coin at last check. Check out the chart:
