A Japanese based cryptocurrency exchange company was hacked of $32 million dollar in cryptocurrency assets. BITPoint Hong Kong is a leading digital asset platform trading provider in the cryptocurrency market, and they are based in Hong Kong. The company is a subsidiary of Bit Point Japan which is the first listed digital asset exchange in Asia, under the parent company called Remix Point Inc.
Crypto Exchange Hack
On Thursday, Bitpoint noticed irregularities in the withdrawal pattern on its platform which prompted a shutdown of all major activities including trading, deposits and withdrawal on Friday. The exchange provides services around five major crypto assets including bitcoin, ethereum, XRP , bitcoin cash and litecoin. The funds which was stolen from the companies “hot wallet” was worth about 3.5 billion in yen, with 2.5 billion yen belonging to its customers while the exchange owned the remaining. They have however reported that they have not detected any breach in its cold wallet. Importantly, it should be noted that Bitpoint was among the cryptocurrency operators that were given directives by Japan’s Financial Agency to improve internal controls after the 2018 Coincheck hack.
It is still unclear how Bitpoint is going to bounce back and probably pay up its fresh debt. The parent company, Remix Point Inc., however released a statement making the hack known, “We are working hard to find out the cause, identify the outflow, and minimize damage,” it added. This begs the question of how safe the Blockchain technology which is the backbone of the cryptocurrency system is. One of the major selling points of the technology when it came to life was its safety. It boasted about been very secure and that no transaction can occur without been logged in the blockchain ledger.
Bittrue Recently Hacked For $4.3 Million
Last month, a Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange called Bitrue also experienced a hack, making a loss of about $4.3 million in XRP and Cardano (ADA) tokens. Earlier 2018, Coincheck’s platform was also breached, totalling in more than $520 million worth of cryptocurrencies gone in flames. Also in 2018, September, Zaif, a licensed exchange under the Japanese Financial Agency was duped of $60 million worth of cryptocurrencies in a fatal cyber attack. The bitpoint platform hack makes the total hack for this year to be the 6th. Also, an estimated value of $ 1.39 billion has vanished from cryptocurrency exchanges till date.
Perhaps there needs to be a general overhauling of the crypto security sphere. If hackers have found a loop hole in sapping the exchange market, it should be blocked and sealed so that such occurrences do not repeat. A further or continuous breach in the crypto world could lead to its collapse. A collapse which could be fatal due to the fact that even without the various cyber attacks, Cryptocurrencies have enough problems to tackle. The path crypto is paving is still relatively new and as such very fragile. If it must stand a chance to actually unite the world financially, its security must be pertinent and handled with utmost care, such that while it fights the battle of acceptance in the world, it’s not being stabbed by itself in security breaches.
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